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MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are highly conserved, short non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression at the posttranscriptional level. Although many miRNAs are identified in muscles and muscle cells, their individual roles are still not fully understood. In the present study, we investigated a muscle highly-expressed miRNA, miR-127-3p, in C2C12 myoblasts and tissues of goats with different muscle phenotypes (Boer vs Wushan black goats). Our results demonstrated that i) miR-127-3p was extensively expressed in tissues of goats; ii) miR-127-3p was higher expressed in muscle, spleen, heart, and skin in the muscular goats (Boer goats) than the control (Wushan black goats). Then we further characterized the dynamical expression of miR-127-3p, MyoD, MyoG, Myf5, Mef2c, and Myosin in the proliferating and differentiating C2C12 myoblasts at day of 0, 1, 3, 5, and 7 in culture mediums. Especially, we found that miR-127-3p was significantly higher expressed in the proliferating than differentiating cells. Our findings suggest that miR-127-3p probably plays roles in the proliferation and differentiation of myoblasts, which further underlies regulation of muscle phenotype in goats.

This study evaluated the effects of inoculation with adult goat ruminal fluid on growth, health, gut microbiota and serum metabolism in lambs during the first 15 days of life. Twenty four Youzhou dark newborn lambs were selected and randomly distributed across 3 treatments (n = 8/group): autoclaved goat milk inoculated with 20 mL sterilized normal saline (CON), autoclaved goat milk inoculated with 20 mL fresh ruminal fluid (RF) and autoclaved goat milk inoculated with 20 mL autoclaved ruminal fluid (ARF). Results showed that RF inoculation was more effective at promoting recovery of body weight. Compared with CON, greater serum concentrations of ALP, CHOL, HDL and LAC in the RF group suggested a better health status in lambs. The relative abundance of Akkermansia and Escherichia-Shigella in gut was lower in the RF group, whereas the relative abundance of Rikenellaceae_RC9_gut_group tended to increase. Metabolomics analysis shown that RF stimulated the metabolism of bile acids, small peptides, fatty acids and Trimethylamine-N-Oxide, which were found the correlation relationship with gut microorganisms. Overall, our study demonstrated that ruminal fluid inoculation with active microorganisms had a beneficial impact on growth, health and overall metabolism partly through modulating the gut microbial community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play roles in almost all biological processes; however, their function and profile in skin development and pigmentation is less understood. In addition, because lncRNAs are species-specific, their function in goats has not been established. Result: We systematically identified lncRNAs in 100-day-old fetal skin by deep RNA-sequencing using the Youzhou dark goat (dark skin) and Yudong white goat (white skin) as a model of skin pigmentation. A total of 841,895,634 clean reads were obtained from six libraries (samples). We identified 1336 specific lncRNAs in fetal skin that belonged to three subtypes, including 999 intergenic lncRNAs (lincRNAs), 218 anti-sense lncRNAs, and 119 intronic lncRNAs. Our results demonstrated significant differences in gene architecture and expression among the three lncRNA subtypes, particularly in terms of density and position bias of transpose elements near the transcription start site. We also investigated the impact of lncRNAs on its target genes in cis and trans, indicating that these lncRNAs have a strict tissue specificity and functional conservation during skin development and pigmentation. Conclusion: The present study provides a resource for lncRNA studies in diseases involved in pigmentation and skin development. It expands our knowledge about lncRNA biology as well as contributes to the annotation of the goat genome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]