Identification of circular RNAs in the ovarian follicles of Meishan and Duroc sows during the follicular phase

[en] Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a newly discovered class of endogenous non-coding RNAs that play an important role in growth and development by regulating gene expression and participating in a variety of biological processes. However, the role of circRNAs in porcine follicles remains unclear. Therefore, this study examined middle-sized ovarian follicles obtained from Meishan and Duroc sows at day 4 of the follicular phase. High-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was utilized to construct circRNAs, and differential expression was identified. The findings were validated using reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) and DNA sequencing, GO and KEGG analyses were performed, and potential miRNA targets were identified. The RNA-seq identified a total of 15,866 circRNAs, with 244 differentially expressed in the Meishan relative to the Duroc (111 up-regulated and 133 down-regulated). The RT-PCR finding confirmed the RNA-seq results, and quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) analysis examining a subset of the circRNAs showed that they are resistant to RNase R digestion. Bioinformatics analysis (GO and KEGG) showed that the host genes associated with the differentially expressed circRNAs are involved in reproduction and follicular development signaling pathways. Furthermore, many of the circRNAs were found to interact with miRNAs that are associated with follicular development. This study presents a new perspective for studying circRNAs and provides a valuable resource for further examination into the potential roles of circRNAs in porcine follicular development.

Research Center/Unit :

College of Animal Science and Technology, Shihezi University, 221 North Fourth Road, Shihezi, 832000 China
Key Laboratory of Animal Breeding and Reproduction of Minstry of Education,College of Animal Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070 China
University of Liège, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech (ULiège-GxABT), Gembloux, Belgium

Disciplines :

Animal production & animal husbandry

Author, co-author :

Xie, Su; Shihezi University > College of Animal Science and Technology

Huang, Tao; Shihezi University > College of Animal Science and Technology,

Critical editor :

Li, Mengxun; Shihezi University > College of Animal Science and Technology

Chen, Yansen ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech

Other collaborator :

Liu, Yi; Shihezi University > College of Animal Science and Technology

Ma, Lipeng

Sun, Xiaomei

Sun, Yishan

Gao, Ruonan

Language :

English

Title :

Identification of circular RNAs in the ovarian follicles of Meishan and Duroc sows during the follicular phase

Publication date :

11 September 2020

Journal title :

Journal of Ovarian Research

eISSN :

1757-2215

Publisher :

BioMed Central, United Kingdom

Volume :

Issue :

104

Pages :

1-14

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7488758/

Funders :

NSCF - National Natural Science Foundation of China

Available on ORBi :

since 29 March 2021

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