College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, PR, China.
Poultry Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Yangzhou, PR, China.
PLoS One. 2018 Oct 4;13(10):e0204931. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0204931. eCollection 2018.
Avian leukosis virus subgroup J (ALV-J) can induce myeloid tumors and hemangiomas in chickens and causes severe economic losses with commercial layer chickens and meat-type chickens. Here, we generated ribominus RNA sequencing data from three normal chicken spleen tissues and three ALV-J-infected chicken spleen tissues. Structure analysis of transcripts showed that, compared to mRNAs and lncRNAs, chicken circRNAs shared relatively shorter transcripts and similar GC content. Differentially expression analysis showed 152 differentially expressed circRNAs with 106 circRNAs up regulated and 46 circRNAs down regulated. Through comparing differentially expressed circRNA host genes and mRNAs and performed ceRNA network analysis, we found several tumor or immune-related genes, in which, there were four genes existed in both differentially expressed mRNAs and circRNA host genes (Dock4, Fmr1, Zfhx3, Ralb) and two genes (Mll, Aoc3) involved in ceRNA network. We further characterized one exon-intron circRNA derived from HRH4 gene in the ceRNA network, termed circHRH4, which is an abundant and stable circRNA expressed in various tissues and cells in chicken and localizes in cytoplasm. Our results provide new insight into the pathology of ALV-J infection and circRNAs may also mediate tumorigenesis in chicken.
禽白血病病毒亚群 J（ALV-J）可引起鸡的髓性肿瘤和血管瘤，并导致商品蛋鸡和肉用型鸡严重的经济损失。在这里，我们从三个正常鸡脾脏组织和三个 ALV-J 感染的鸡脾脏组织中生成了 ribominus RNA 测序数据。转录本结构分析表明，与 mRNAs 和 lncRNAs 相比，鸡 circRNAs 具有相对较短的转录本和相似的 GC 含量。差异表达分析显示，有 152 个差异表达的 circRNAs，其中 106 个 circRNAs 上调，46 个 circRNAs 下调。通过比较差异表达的 circRNA 宿主基因和 mRNAs，并进行 ceRNA 网络分析，我们发现了几个肿瘤或免疫相关基因，其中，有四个基因存在于差异表达的 mRNAs 和 circRNA 宿主基因中（Dock4、Fmr1、Zfhx3、Ralb），两个基因（Mll、Aoc3）参与 ceRNA 网络。我们进一步描述了 ceRNA 网络中 HRH4 基因的一个外显子-内含子 circRNA，称为 circHRH4，它是一种在鸡的各种组织和细胞中表达丰富且稳定的 circRNA，定位于细胞质中。我们的研究结果为 ALV-J 感染的病理学提供了新的见解，circRNAs 也可能介导鸡的肿瘤发生。
