Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most lethal cancer worldwide, characterized with high heterogeneity and inclination to metastasize. Emerging evidence suggests that BAP31 gets involved in cancer progression with different kinds. It still remains unknown whether and how BAP31 plays a role in HCC metastasis. Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) has been a common feature in tumor micro-environment, whose inducer TGF-β increased BAP31 expression in this research. Elevated expression of BAP31 was positively correlated with tumor size, vascular invasion and poor prognosis in human HCC. Ectopic expression of BAP31 promoted cell migration and invasion while BAP31 knockdown markedly attenuated metastatic potential in HCC cells and mice orthotopic xenografts. BAP31 induced EMT process, and enhanced the expression level of EMT-related factor Snail and decreased contents and membrane distribution of E-cadherin. BAP31 also activated AKT/β-catenin pathway, which mediated its promotional effects on HCC metastasis. AKT inhibitor further counteracted the activated AKT/β-catenin/Snail upon BAP31 over-expression. Moreover, silencing Snail in BAP31-overexpressed cells impaired enhanced migratory and invasive abilities of HCC cells. In HCC tissues, BAP31 expression was positively associated with Snail. In conclusion, BAP31 promotes HCC metastasis by activating AKT/β-catenin/Snail pathway. Thus, our study implicates BAP31 as potential prognostic biomarker, and provides valuable information for HCC prognosis and treatment.
The characteristics of muscle fibers determine the growth and meat quality of poultry. In this study, we performed a weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) on the muscle fiber characteristics and transcriptome profile of the breast muscle tissue of Gushi chicken at 6, 14, 22, and 30 weeks.
Abstract Background: Chicken skeletal muscle is an important economic product. Late stages of chicken development are the main period that affects meat production. LncRNAs play important roles in controlling the epigenetic process of growth and development. However, studies on the role of lncRNAs in the late stages of chicken breast muscle development are still lacking. In this study, in order to study the expression characteristics of lncRNAs during chicken muscle development, 12 cDNA libraries were constructed from Gushi chicken breast muscle samples from 6-, 14-, 22-, and 30-week-old chickens. Results: Therefore, a total of 1,252 new lncRNAs and 1,376 annotated lncRNAs were identified. Furthermore, 53, 61, 50, 153, 117, and 78 DE-lncRNAs were found in the W14 vs. W6, W22 vs. W14, W22 vs. W6, W30 vs. W6, W30 vs. W14 , and W30 vs. W22 comparison groups, respectively. After GO enrichment analysis of the DE-lncRNAs, several muscle development-related GO terms were found in the W22 vs. W14 comparison group. Furthermore, it was found that the MAPK signaling pathway was one of the most frequently enriched pathways in the different comparison groups. In addition, 12 common target DE-miRNAs of DE-lncRNAs were found in different comparison groups, some of which were muscle-specific miRNAs, such as gga-miR-206, gga-miR-1a-3p, and miR-133a-3p. Interestingly, the precursors of four newly identified miRNAs were found to be homologous to lncRNAs. Furthermore, we found some ceRNA networks associated with muscle development-related GO terms. For example, the ceRNA networks containing the DYNLL2 gene with 12 lncRNAs that targeted 2 miRNAs. In addition, we also constructed PPI networks, such as IGF-I - EGF and FZD6 - WNT11 , etc. Conclusions: This study for the first time revealed the dynamic changes of lncRNA expression in Gushi chicken breast muscle at different periods, and reveal the MAPK signaling pathway play a vital role in muscle development. Furthermore, MEF2C and its target lncRNA may be involved in muscle regulation through the MAPK signaling pathway. This research provided valuable resources for elucidating post-transcriptional regulatory mechanisms to promote the development of chicken breast muscles after hatching.
As warthogs (Phacochoerus africanus) have innate immunity against African swine fever (ASF), it is critical to understand the evolutionary novelty of warthogs to explain their specific ASF resistance.Here, we present two completed new genomes of one warthog and one Kenyan domestic pig as fundamental genomic references to elucidate the genetic mechanisms of ASF tolerance.Multiple genomic variations, including gene losses, independent contraction, and the expansion of specific gene families, likely molded the warthog genome to adapt to the environment. Importantly, the analysis of the presence and absence of genomic sequences revealed that the DNA sequence of the warthog genome had an absence of the gene lactate dehydrogenase B (LDHB) on chromosome 2 compared with the reference genome. The overexpression and siRNA of LDHB inhibited the replication of the African swine fever virus. Combined with large-scale sequencing data from 42 pigs worldwide, the contraction and expansion of tripartite motif-containing (TRIM) gene families revealed that TRIM family genes in the warthog genome are potentially responsible for its tolerance to ASF.Our results will help improve the understanding of genetic resistance to ASF in pigs.
Several recent studies investigated the role of the miR-29 family in muscle development. However, only a few studies focused on chicken skeletal muscle. In the present study, cell cycle, 5-ethynyl-2'-deoxyuridine (EdU), cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8), and other assays indicated that miR-29b-1-5p can inhibit the proliferation of chicken primary myoblasts (CPMs); the western blot assay and immunofluorescence detection of MYHC demonstrated that miR-29b-1-5p can promote the differentiation of myoblasts. The functional enrichment analysis revealed that the target genes of miR-29b-1-5p may be involved in muscle tissue development, muscle organ development, and striated muscle tissue development, which are biological processes related to muscle development. The correlation analysis showed that these 6 genes, that is, ankyrin repeat domain 9 (ANKRD9), lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA), transcription factor 12 (TCF12), FAT atypical cadherin 1 (FAT1), lin-9 homolog (LIN9), and integrin beta 3 binding protein (ITGB3BP), can be used as effective candidate target genes of miR-29b-1-5p. Moreover, miR-29b-1-5p inhibits the expression of ANKRD9 by directly binding the 3'UTR of ANKRD9. Overall, these data indicate that miR-29b-1-5p inhibits the proliferation of primary chicken myoblasts, stimulates their differentiation, and is involved in the process of muscle development and that its effective target gene is ANKRD9. This study identified the molecular mechanism of miR-29b-1-5p in chicken muscle development.
'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' transform='rotate(23.036 .093 25.536)'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' transform='rotate(45.87 1.273 16.18)'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' transform='rotate(69.945 .996 12.078)'/%3e%3cuse xlink:href='%23a' transform='rotate(20.66 -19.689 31.932)'/%3e%3c/svg%3e)