China Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine ›› 2023, Vol. 50 ›› Issue (6): 2175-2184.doi: 10.16431/j.cnki.1671-7236.2023.06.001

• Biotechnology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Tissue Expression and Bioinformatics Analysis of miR-449a/b Precursor Sequences in Sheep

WANG Saiqiao, ZHAO Lu, ZHAI Zhenhan, ZHANG Binglei, JIA Wanhang, WANG Yuqin   

  1. College of Animal Science and Technology, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang 471000, China
  • Received:2022-11-28 Online:2023-06-05 Published:2023-05-30

Abstract: 【Objective】 This study was aimed to investigate the role of miR-449a/b in the growth, development and reproductive performance of sheep, and provide reference for further studies on the role of miR-449a/b in reproduction regulation of sheep.【Method】 The relative expression of miR-449a/b in hypothalamus, pituitary and ovary of Hu sheep was studied by Real-time quantitative PCR.TargetScan, miRWalk and miRDB softwares were used to predict the target gene of miR-449a/b precursor sequences in sheep.GO function and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis were performed using bioinformatics and KOBAS websites.【Result】 The comparison result of the precursor sequence obtained from the test was consistent with the precursor sequence information of sheep in NCBI database.Real-time quantitative PCR results showed that the relative expression of miR-449a in pituitary was significantly higher than that of miR-449b (P<0.05), the relative expression of miR-449b in ovary was extremely significantly higher than that of miR-449a (P<0.01).The number of target genes of miR-449a and miR-449b were 299 and 23 by Venn diagram analysis using three target gene prediction softwares, respectively.The results of GO function enrichment showed that miR-449a/b were mainly enriched into biological processes.The results of KEGG pathway enrichment were analyzed by the top 20 pathways, including oxytocin signaling pathway and MAPK signaling pathway and other signaling pathways related to reproductive regulation.【Conclusion】 The expression of miR-449a in pituitary was high, and the expression of miR-449b in ovary was high.The number of target genes of miR-449a/b were 299 and 23, respectively, and its gene function was mainly concentrated in biological process, which might be involved in the reproductive regulation in Hu sheep.

Key words: sheep; miR-449a; miR-449b; bioinformatics; target genes; reproductive regulation

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