mRNA degradome analysis indicating miRNA regulation in muscle mass development

The search of the molecular process associated with development and metabolism of muscle mass is still actual, what in humans is related to muscle modification after endurance training exercises. In turn in farm animals, the high meat content in carcasses delivers higher economic benefit. Over a few recent years, scientists using next-generation-sequencing (NGS) methods attempted to indicate proteins/genes engaged in muscle mass development. The aim of the present study was to show mRNA degradome signals that could be characteristic for molecular processes associated with muscle development in pigs and indicate the miRNA regulation controlling this process based using also NGS technology. The preliminary results exhibited that the huge amount of miRNAs regulate gene expression at the different molecular level than mRNA degradation. Moreover, the study found significant differences between investigated pig breeds. The results often were opposite for Pietrain breed that could be related to differences in muscle fibre composition and their microstructure. The present study showed an interesting dependence between miRNA and their targets - the most of transcripts found as being degraded, were associated with controlling muscle mass development such as ENO3, CKM, CRYAB and ADAM19. In turn, performed PAREsnip analysis showed that only a small percentage of identified degraded transcripts was associated with miRNA regulation, what suggested a different mechanism of mRNA degradation. Nevertheless, the complete view of miRNA regulation could be obtained in the more advanced study, which would employ miRNA transfection procedure in muscle tissue cell culture that could be a subject of further research. Examination of mRNA levels between chicken groups differing in age and growth rate. The study was supported by statutory activity of National Research Institute of Animal Production (no. 01-013.1) and National Multidisciplinary Laboratory of Functional Nanomaterials NanoFun nr POIG.02.02.00-00-025/09 (Innovative Economy Operational Programme, Priority Axis 2: R&D Infrastructure, Action 2.2: Support of Formation of Common Research Infrastructure of Scientific Units.