China Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine ›› 2021, Vol. 48 ›› Issue (11): 4133-4142.doi: 10.16431/j.cnki.1671-7236.2021.11.023

• Genetics and Breeding • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Research Advances on Regulation of Animal Follicular Development by miRNA

FENG Guanghang1,2, JIANG Shengwei2, LI Yaokun2, LIU Guangbin2, ZOU Xian1, LIU Dewu2,3   

  1. 1. State Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Breeding & Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Breeding and Nutrition, Institute of Animal Science, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China;
    2. College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, China;
    3. Lingnan Modern Agricultural Science and Technology Guangdong Laboratory, Guangzhou 510642, China
  • Received:2021-05-06 Online:2021-11-20 Published:2021-11-01

Abstract: Fertility of female animals is based on follicular development, which is regulated by complex genetic networks. microRNA (miRNA) is a kind of non-coding RNA that regulates gene expression primarily at the post-transcriptional levels. In the past decade, studies on miRNA in follicles have revealed the key roles of miRNA in follicular development and function. This paper focuses on the follicular development process of female animals, and analyzes the function of miRNA carried by follicular fluid exosomes. The mechanism of miRNA regulating follicular development was summarized, including activation of primordial follicles and selection of growing follicles. The authors also introduced the growth regulation of miRNA on follicular granulosa cells and theca cells. However, most of the current follicular miRNA studies are focused on cellular knockdown model studies, and knockout models are less studied. Therefore, current research should increase the application of cellular and in vivo knockout models, which is helpful to better understand the function of miRNA in follicular development. These results can provide a reference for in-depth analysis of the molecular mechanism of reproductive traits regulation in female animals.

Key words: miRNA; ovary; follicular development; granulosa cell; theca cell

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