An integrated analysis of mRNA and miRNA in skeletal muscle from myostatin-edited Meishan pigs.

Myostatin (MSTN) is a key muscle factor that negatively regulates skeletal muscle growth and development. Our laboratory recently produced genetically engineered Meishan pigs containing a -edited MSTN loss-of-function mutation (MSTN, MKO) that led to the hypertrophy of skeletal muscles. In this study, we performed transcriptome sequencing and miRNA sequencing in skeletal muscle samples from MKO and wildtype Meishan (MWT) pigs to investigate the effect of MSTN on expression of mRNA and miRNA. Our results indicated that, compared to MWT pigs, there were 200 genes and 4 miRNAs being significantly up-regulated, and 238 genes and 5 miRNAs being significantly down-regulated in MKO pigs. Analysis by GO and KEGG pathways revealed that differentially expressed miRNAs and their target genes of those differentially expressed miRNAs were involved in the signal pathways of skeletal muscle growth and development such as AMPK, mTOR, and TGF-beta. An integrated analysis of the correlation between miRNA-mRNA and transcriptome predicated that and were target genes for miR-499-5p, while was a target gene for miR-490-3p. Our results provide important clues to help us further investigate MSTN's regulatory mechanisms during skeletal muscle growth and development.