Abstract：
Skeletal muscle development plays a vital role in muscle quality and yield in meat rabbits. Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are a new type of single-stranded endogenous non-coding RNAs involved in different biological processes. However, our knowledge of circRNAs regulating skeletal muscle development remains largely unknown in meat rabbits. In this study, we collected the leg muscle tissues of ZIKA rabbits at three key growth stages. By performing whole-transcriptome sequencing, we found the sequential expression of day 0- (D0-), D35-, and D70-selective mRNAs mainly functioned in muscle development, nervous development, and immune response during skeletal muscle development, respectively. Then, a combination of circRNA assembly from a circRNA-seq library and the whole-transcriptome sequencing data identified 6845 credible circRNAs in our samples. Most circRNAs were transcribed from exons of known genes, contained few exons, and showed short length, and these circRNAs were more conserved between rabbits and humans than between rabbits and mice. The upregulated circRNAs, which were synchronously changed with host genes, primarily played roles in MAPK signaling pathways and fatty acid biosynthesis. The prediction of circRNA-microRNA-mRNAs networks revealed that circRNAs might be the regulators that mainly functioned in rabbits\' muscle neuron development and metabolic processes. Our work provides a catalog of circRNAs regulating skeletal muscle development at key growth stages in rabbits and might give a new insight into rabbit breeding.
摘要：
骨骼肌发育对肉兔肌肉品质和产量起着至关重要的作用。环状RNA（circularRNAs，circRNAs）是一类新型的单链内源性非编码RNA，参与不同的生物过程。然而,在肉兔中，我们对调节骨骼肌发育的circRNAs的知识仍然未知。在这项研究中,我们收集了ZIKA兔在三个关键生长阶段的腿部肌肉组织。通过进行全转录组测序，我们找到了第0天-(D0-)的顺序表达式，D35-,和D70选择性mRNA主要在肌肉发育中起作用，神经发育,和骨骼肌发育过程中的免疫反应，分别。然后，来自circRNA-seq文库的circRNA组装和全转录组测序数据的组合在我们的样本中鉴定出6845个可信的circRNA.大多数circRNAs是从已知基因的外显子转录的，包含很少的外显子，长度短，这些circRNAs在兔子和人类之间比在兔子和小鼠之间更保守。上调的circRNAs，它们与宿主基因同步变化，主要在MAPK信号通路和脂肪酸生物合成中起作用。对circRNA-microRNA-mRNAs网络的预测表明，circRNAs可能是主要在兔肌肉神经元发育和代谢过程中起作用的调节因子。我们的工作提供了调节兔关键生长阶段骨骼肌发育的circRNAs目录，并可能为兔育种提供新的见解。
