Transcriptional Differences of Coding and Non-Coding Genes Related to the Absence of Melanocyte in Skins of Bama Pig.

Skin is the body's largest organ, and the main function of skin is to protect underlying organs from possible external damage. Melanocytes play an important role in skin pigmentation. The Bama pig has a "two-end-black" phenotype with different coat colors across skin regions, e.g., white skin (without melanocytes) and black skin (with melanocytes), which could be a model to investigate skin-related disorders, specifically loss of melanocytes. Here, we generated expression profiles of mRNAs and long noncoding RNAs in Bama pig skins with different coat colors. In total, 14,900 mRNAs and 7549 lncRNAs were expressed. Overall, 2338 mRNAs/113 lncRNAs with FDR-adjusted -value ≤ 0.05 were considered to be differentially expressed (DE) mRNAs/lncRNAs, with 1305 down-regulated mRNAs and 1033 up-regulated mRNAs in white skin with|log(fold change)| > 1. The genes down-regulated in white skin were associated with pigmentation, melanocyte-keratinocyte interaction, and keratin, while up-regulated ones were mainly associated with cellular energy metabolisms. Furthermore, those DE lncRNAs were predicted to be implicated in pigmentation, keratin synthesis and cellular energy metabolism. In general, this study provides insight into the transcriptional difference involved in melanocyte-loss-induced keratinocyte changes and promotes the Bama pig as a biomedical model in skin research.