Gga-let-7a-3p inhibits the proliferation and differentiation of chicken intramuscular preadipocytes

ABSTRACT

1. Intramuscular fat (IMF) is a key parameter for chicken meat quality. IMF deposition is driven by genetic, nutritional and management factors, with genetics being the determining factor. Previous whole transcriptome sequencing revealed that microRNA gga-let-7a-3p was related to lipid metabolism in breast muscle. This study further investigated the potential role of gga-let-7a-3p in IMF deposition.

2. The mimic and inhibitor of gga-let-7a-3p were individually transfected into chicken intramuscular preadipocytes. Subsequently, the proliferation and differentiation states of the cells were detected. Transcriptome sequencing was performed on cells transfected with gga-let-7a-3p mimic.

3. The results indicated that gga-let-7a-3p suppressed the mRNA levels of proliferation and differentiation-related genes, as well as the protein levels. EdU and Oil Red O assays revealed that gga-let-7a-3p restrained preadipocyte proliferation and differentiation. In addition, a total of 333 up-regulated genes and 807 down-regulated genes were identified in cells transfected with gga-let-7a-3p mimic. Using Kyoto Encyclopaedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) and Gene Ontology (GO) analysis, differential genes were found to be enriched in processes such as the peroxisome proliferator activated receptor (PPAR) signalling pathway and oxidative phosphorylation.

4. The study demonstrated that gga-let-7a-3p inhibits the proliferation and differentiation of chicken intramuscular preadipocytes, which provides new understanding to further unravel the function of gga-let-7a-3p.

KEYWORDS:

• Gga-let-7a-3p
• intramuscular fat
• preadipocytes
• meat quality
• transcriptome

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The RNA sequencing data in this study was uploaded to SRA database with the accession number of PRJNA1010492.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Southwest University of Science and Technology [grant nos. 21zx7119 and 22zx7151] and the Key Technology Support Program of Sichuan Province [grant nos. 2022NSFSC1722, 2023NSFSC1147 and 22ZDYF0004].