Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2022, Vol. 53 ›› Issue (4): 1077-1088.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2022.04.008

• ANIMAL GENETICS AND BREEDING • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Overexpression of circNMT1 Promotes Adipogenic Differentiation of Buffalo Adipocytes

FENG Xue1, ZHAO Jinhui2, WANG Shuzhe1, HUANG Jieping2,3, WEI Xuefeng2, SHI Yuangang1, MA Yun1,2*   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Ruminant Molecular and Cellular Breeding of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, School of Agriculture, Ningxia University, Yinchuan 750021, China;
    2. College of Life Sciences, Xinyang Normal University, Xinyang 464000, China;
    3. College of Animal Science and Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning 530000, China
  • Received:2021-08-19 Online:2022-04-23 Published:2022-04-25

Abstract: The aim of this research was to identify non-coding RNA, circNMT1, clarify its tissue and cells expression patterns, and explore the effect of circNMT1 overexpression on adipocyte differentiation. In the study, the heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney, longissimus dorsi, dorsal subcutaneous adipose tissue and preadipocytes of 30-month-old Chinese swamp buffalo (Xinyang buffalo, n=3) and 3T3-L1 cells were used as experimental materials. Semiquantitative PCR and real-time quantitative PCR (qRT-PCR) were used to identify circNMT1, explore its location in the nucleus or cytoplasm of buffalo adipocytes. Relative expression level of circNMT1 in different tissues and preadipocytes of buffalo at different differentiation stages were detected by qRT-PCR. circNMT1 was overexpressed in 3T3-L1 cells and buffalo preadipocytes respectively, and the accumulation of lipid droplet was detected by morphology and quantitative method. Meanwhile, the relative expression level of adipogenic differentiation marker genes was detected by qRT-PCR. The results showed that circNMT1 was stably expressed circRNA, which was expressed in both nucleus and cytoplasm of buffalo preadipocytes. And circNMT1 was highly expressed in adipose tissue and maturation adipocytes (P<0.001). Gain-of-function experiments demonstrated that the overexpression of circNMT1 significantly promoted the accumulation of lipid droplets in 3T3-L1 cells and buffalo adipocytes, and significantly upregulated the relative expression level of adipogenic marker genes PPARG, C/EBPα and FABP4 (P<0.01). These results indicated that circNMT1 might be a positive regulator for buffalo adipocytes differentiation, which would provide new insights into the regulatory roles of circNMT1 in buffalo adipocytes.

Key words: buffalo, IMF, adipocytes, circRNA, overexpression

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