scholarly journals Identification of the Key microRNAs and miRNA-mRNA Interaction Networks during the Ovarian Development of Hens

Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 1680
Author(s):  
Jing Li ◽  
Chong Li ◽  
Qi Li ◽  
Wen-Ting Li ◽  
Hong Li ◽  
...  

It is well-known that multiple functional miRNAs are found in mammals’ ovaries, which are linked not only to ovarian development, but also to maturation and apoptosis. However, there is still a lack of knowledge regarding the role of miRNAs in the hen ovary. In the present study, we analyzed the miRNA sequencing libraries of ovaries at the four different developmental stages of hens (15, 20, 30, and 68 W) and a total of 677 known miRNAs and 61 novel miRNAs were identified. In total, 209 of them were differently expressed miRNAs (DE miRNAs) obtained from comparisons of the four stages, including 84 upregulated and 125 downregulated DE miRNAs. Furthermore, the five key DE miRNAs gga-miR-2954, gga-miR-6634-5p, gga-miR-449b-5p, gga-miR-449c-3p, and gga-miR449c-5p were screened using an analysis of the miRNA-mRNA interaction network and functional enrichment annotated in seven significantly enriched pathways, such as endocytosis, lysine degradation, the biosynthesis of amino acids, and the MAPK signaling pathway, which may primarily participate in cell differentiation and proliferation, steroid hormone biosynthesis, and angiogenesis by targeting the related genes. For instance, gga-miR-449 family members were predicted to target 15 genes, including TGFB1, TPM1, TPM3, and CAMKB2, which were reported to regulate follicular growth, selection, and the ovulatory cycle. Taken together, our results illustrate the ovarian miRNA profiles of the four classic developmental stages of hens and highlight the significant role of miRNAs in ovarian development and functions. However, in-depth research needs to be carried out to validate the potential functional miRNAs found in this study.

Genes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 771 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nazir M. Khan ◽  
Martha E Diaz-Hernandez ◽  
Steven M. Presciutti ◽  
Hicham Drissi

Intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration (IDD) is a multifactorial physiological process which is often associated with lower back pain. Previous studies have identified some molecular markers associated with disc degeneration, which despite their significant contributions, have provided limited insight into the etiology of IDD. In this study, we utilized a network medicine approach to uncover potential molecular mediators of IDD. Our systematic analyses of IDD associated with 284 genes included functional annotation clustering, interaction networks, network cluster analysis and Transcription factors (TFs)-target gene network analysis. The functional enrichment and protein–protein interaction network analysis highlighted the role of inflammatory genes and cytokine/chemokine signaling in IDD. Moreover, sub-network analysis identified significant clusters possessing organized networks of 24 cytokine and chemokine genes, which may be considered as key modulators for IDD. The expression of these genes was validated in independent microarray datasets. In addition, the regulatory network analysis identified the role of multiple transcription factors, with RUNX1 being a master regulator in the pathogenesis of IDD. Our analyses highlighted the role of cytokine genes and interacting pathways in IDD and further improved our understanding of the genetic mechanisms underlying IDD.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lun Li ◽  
Yi Yang ◽  
Zhenshuang Wang ◽  
Chengran Xu ◽  
Jinhai Huang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Current treatment options for glioma are limited, and the prognosis of patients with glioma is poor as the available drugs show low therapeutic efficacy. Furthermore, the molecular mechanisms associated with glioma remain poorly understood. METTL1 mainly catalyzes the formation of N(7)-methylguanine at position 46 of the transfer RNA sequence, thereby regulating the translation process. However, the role of METTL1 in glioma has not been studied to date. The purpose of this study was to analyze the expression and prognosis of METTL1 in glioma, and to explore the potential analysis mechanism. Methods Data from five publicly available databases were used to analyze METTL1 expression across different tumor types and its differential expression between carcinoma and adjacent normal tissues. The expression of METTL1 in glioma was further validated using real-time polymerase chain reaction and immunohistochemistry. Meanwhile, siRNA was used to knockdown METTL1 in U87 glioma cells, and the resultant effect on glioma proliferation was verified using the Cell Counting Kit 8 (CCK8) assay. Furthermore, a nomogram was constructed to predict the association between METTL1 expression and the survival rate of patients with glioma. Results METTL1 expression increased with increasing glioma grades and was significantly higher in glioma than in adjacent noncancerous tissues. In addition, high expression of METTL1 promoted cell proliferation. Moreover, METTL1 expression was associated with common clinical risk factors and was significantly associated with the prognosis and survival of patients with glioma. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses revealed that METTL1 expression may be used as an independent prognostic risk factor for glioma. Furthermore, results of functional enrichment and pathway analyses indicate that the mechanism of METTL1 in glioma is potentially related to the MAPK signaling pathway. Conclusions High METTL1 expression is significantly associated with poor prognosis of patients with glioma and may represent a valuable independent risk factor. In addition, high expression of METTL1 promotes glioma proliferation and may regulate mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway. Thus, METTL1 may be a potential biomarker for glioma. Further investigations are warranted to explore its clinical use.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kui Hu ◽  
Ping Tian ◽  
Lu Yang ◽  
Lin Qiu ◽  
Hualiang He ◽  
...  

Abstract Juvenile hormone (JH) is responsible for repressing larval metamorphosis and inducing vitellogenesis and egg production in insects. Methoprene-tolerant (Met) is known to be an intracellular receptor and transducer of JH. We examined the role of Met in ovarian development in the rice pest Sogatella furcifera (Horváth). We first cloned and sequenced S. furcifera Met (SfMet). The SfMet protein belongs to the basic helix–loop–helix/Per-Arnt-Sim (bHLH-PAS) family with a bHLH domain and two PAS domains (PAS-A and PAS-B). SfMet was expressed in all developmental stages and tissues but was most highly expressed in the ovaries of adult females. Furthermore, RNA interference (RNAi) mediated silencing of SfMet substantially reduced the expression of SfVg, decreased yolk protein deposition and blocked oocyte maturation and ovarian development. These results demonstrate that SfMet plays a key role in female reproduction in S. furcifera and suggest that targeting this gene could be an effective way of controlling this pest.


2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (8) ◽  
pp. 805-813
Author(s):  
Ai Jiang ◽  
Peng Xu ◽  
Zhenda Zhao ◽  
Qizhao Tan ◽  
Shang Sun ◽  
...  

Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a joint disease that leads to a high disability rate and a low quality of life. With the development of modern molecular biology techniques, some key genes and diagnostic markers have been reported. However, the etiology and pathogenesis of OA are still unknown. Objective: To develop a gene signature in OA. Method: In this study, five microarray data sets were integrated to conduct a comprehensive network and pathway analysis of the biological functions of OA related genes, which can provide valuable information and further explore the etiology and pathogenesis of OA. Results and Discussion: Differential expression analysis identified 180 genes with significantly expressed expression in OA. Functional enrichment analysis showed that the up-regulated genes were associated with rheumatoid arthritis (p < 0.01). Down-regulated genes regulate the biological processes of negative regulation of kinase activity and some signaling pathways such as MAPK signaling pathway (p < 0.001) and IL-17 signaling pathway (p < 0.001). In addition, the OA specific protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed based on the differentially expressed genes. The analysis of network topological attributes showed that differentially upregulated VEGFA, MYC, ATF3 and JUN genes were hub genes of the network, which may influence the occurrence and development of OA through regulating cell cycle or apoptosis, and were potential biomarkers of OA. Finally, the support vector machine (SVM) method was used to establish the diagnosis model of OA, which not only had excellent predictive power in internal and external data sets (AUC > 0.9), but also had high predictive performance in different chip platforms (AUC > 0.9) and also had effective ability in blood samples (AUC > 0.8). Conclusion: The 4-genes diagnostic model may be of great help to the early diagnosis and prediction of OA.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fang Li ◽  
Zaichao Zheng ◽  
Hongyu Li ◽  
Rongrong Fu ◽  
Limei Xu ◽  
...  

AbstractDespite the central role of hemocytes in crustacean immunity, the process of hemocyte differentiation and maturation remains unclear. In some decapods, it has been proposed that the two main types of hemocytes, granular cells (GCs) and semigranular cells (SGCs), differentiate along separate lineages. However, our current findings challenge this model. By tracking newly produced hemocytes and transplanted cells, we demonstrate that almost all the circulating hemocytes of crayfish belong to the GC lineage. SGCs and GCs may represent hemocytes of different developmental stages rather than two types of fully differentiated cells. Hemocyte precursors produced by progenitor cells differentiate in the hematopoietic tissue (HPT) for 3 ~ 4 days. Immature hemocytes are released from HPT in the form of SGCs and take 1 ~ 3 months to mature in the circulation. GCs represent the terminal stage of development. They can survive for as long as 2 months. The changes in the expression pattern of marker genes during GC differentiation support our conclusions. Further analysis of hemocyte phagocytosis indicates the existence of functionally different subpopulations. These findings may reshape our understanding of crustacean hematopoiesis and may lead to reconsideration of the roles and relationship of circulating hemocytes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhongyuan Lin ◽  
Yimin Wang ◽  
Shiqing Lin ◽  
Decheng Liu ◽  
Guohui Mo ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is the most common functional gastrointestinal disease characterized by chronic abdominal discomfort and pain. The mechanisms of abdominal pain, as a relevant symptom, in IBS are still unclear. We aimed to explore the key genes and neurobiological changes specially involved in abdominal pain in IBS. Methods Gene expression data (GSE36701) was downloaded from Gene Expression Omnibus database. Fifty-three rectal mucosa samples from 27 irritable bowel syndrome with diarrhea (IBS-D) patients and 40 samples from 21 healthy volunteers as controls were included. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between two groups were identified using the GEO2R online tool. Functional enrichment analysis of DEGs was performed on the DAVID database. Then a protein–protein interaction network was constructed and visualized using STRING database and Cytoscape. Results The microarray analysis demonstrated a subset of genes (CCKBR, CCL13, ACPP, BDKRB2, GRPR, SLC1A2, NPFF, P2RX4, TRPA1, CCKBR, TLX2, MRGPRX3, PAX2, CXCR1) specially involved in pain transmission. Among these genes, we identified GRPR, NPFF and TRPA1 genes as potential biomarkers for irritating abdominal pain of IBS patients. Conclusions Overexpression of certain pain-related genes (GRPR, NPFF and TRPA1) may contribute to chronic visceral hypersensitivity, therefore be partly responsible for recurrent abdominal pain or discomfort in IBS patients. Several synapses modification and biological process of psychological distress may be risk factors of IBS.


Genetics ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 155 (4) ◽  
pp. 1757-1772 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott L Page ◽  
Kim S McKim ◽  
Benjamin Deneen ◽  
Tajia L Van Hook ◽  
R Scott Hawley

Abstract We present the cloning and characterization of mei-P26, a novel P-element-induced exchange-defective female meiotic mutant in Drosophila melanogaster. Meiotic exchange in females homozygous for mei-P261 is reduced in a polar fashion, such that distal chromosomal regions are the most severely affected. Additional alleles generated by duplication of the P element reveal that mei-P26 is also necessary for germline differentiation in both females and males. To further assess the role of mei-P26 in germline differentiation, we tested double mutant combinations of mei-P26 and bag-of-marbles (bam), a gene necessary for the control of germline differentiation and proliferation in both sexes. A null mutation at the bam locus was found to act as a dominant enhancer of mei-P26 in both males and females. Interestingly, meiotic exchange in mei-P261; bamΔ86/+ females is also severely decreased in comparison to mei-P261 homozygotes, indicating that bam affects the meiotic phenotype as well. These data suggest that the pathways controlling germline differentiation and meiotic exchange are related and that factors involved in the mitotic divisions of the germline may regulate meiotic recombination.


2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-33
Author(s):  
Lydia-Eirini Giannakou ◽  
Athanasios-Stefanos Giannopoulos ◽  
Chrissi Hatzoglou ◽  
Konstantinos I. Gourgoulianis ◽  
Erasmia Rouka ◽  
...  

Haemophilus influenzae (Hi), Moraxella catarrhalis (MorCa) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Psa) are three of the most common gram-negative bacteria responsible for human respiratory diseases. In this study, we aimed to identify, using the functional enrichment analysis (FEA), the human gene interaction network with the aforementioned bacteria in order to elucidate the full spectrum of induced pathogenicity. The Human Pathogen Interaction Database (HPIDB 3.0) was used to identify the human proteins that interact with the three pathogens. FEA was performed via the ToppFun tool of the ToppGene Suite and the GeneCodis database so as to identify enriched gene ontologies (GO) of biological processes (BP), cellular components (CC) and diseases. In total, 11 human proteins were found to interact with the bacterial pathogens. FEA of BP GOs revealed associations with mitochondrial membrane permeability relative to apoptotic pathways. FEA of CC GOs revealed associations with focal adhesion, cell junctions and exosomes. The most significantly enriched annotations in diseases and pathways were lung adenocarcinoma and cell cycle, respectively. Our results suggest that the Hi, MorCa and Psa pathogens could be related to the pathogenesis and/or progression of lung adenocarcinoma via the targeting of the epithelial cellular junctions and the subsequent deregulation of the cell adhesion and apoptotic pathways. These hypotheses should be experimentally validated.


AMB Express ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chunmiao Jiang ◽  
Gongbo Lv ◽  
Jinxin Ge ◽  
Bin He ◽  
Zhe Zhang ◽  
...  

AbstractGATA transcription factors (TFs) are involved in the regulation of growth processes and various environmental stresses. Although GATA TFs involved in abiotic stress in plants and some fungi have been analyzed, information regarding GATA TFs in Aspergillusoryzae is extremely poor. In this study, we identified and functionally characterized seven GATA proteins from A.oryzae 3.042 genome, including a novel AoSnf5 GATA TF with 20-residue between the Cys-X2-Cys motifs which was found in Aspergillus GATA TFs for the first time. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that these seven A. oryzae GATA TFs could be classified into six subgroups. Analysis of conserved motifs demonstrated that Aspergillus GATA TFs with similar motif compositions clustered in one subgroup, suggesting that they might possess similar genetic functions, further confirming the accuracy of the phylogenetic relationship. Furthermore, the expression patterns of seven A.oryzae GATA TFs under temperature and salt stresses indicated that A. oryzae GATA TFs were mainly responsive to high temperature and high salt stress. The protein–protein interaction network of A.oryzae GATA TFs revealed certain potentially interacting proteins. The comprehensive analysis of A. oryzae GATA TFs will be beneficial for understanding their biological function and evolutionary features and provide an important starting point to further understand the role of GATA TFs in the regulation of distinct environmental conditions in A.oryzae.


Author(s):  
Zhiqiang Sha ◽  
Dick Schijven ◽  
Amaia Carrion-Castillo ◽  
Marc Joliot ◽  
Bernard Mazoyer ◽  
...  

AbstractLeft–right hemispheric asymmetry is an important aspect of healthy brain organization for many functions including language, and it can be altered in cognitive and psychiatric disorders. No mechanism has yet been identified for establishing the human brain’s left–right axis. We performed multivariate genome-wide association scanning of cortical regional surface area and thickness asymmetries, and subcortical volume asymmetries, using data from 32,256 participants from the UK Biobank. There were 21 significant loci associated with different aspects of brain asymmetry, with functional enrichment involving microtubule-related genes and embryonic brain expression. These findings are consistent with a known role of the cytoskeleton in left–right axis determination in other organs of invertebrates and frogs. Genetic variants associated with brain asymmetry overlapped with those associated with autism, educational attainment and schizophrenia. Comparably large datasets will likely be required in future studies, to replicate and further clarify the associations of microtubule-related genes with variation in brain asymmetry, behavioural and psychiatric traits.


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