Screening and Identification of Differentially Expressed and Adipose Growth-Related Protein-Coding Genes During the Deposition of Perirenal Adipose Tissue in Rabbits

Guoze Wang; Kun Du; Zhenjian Xie; Renyong Tang; Xianbo Jia; Shiyi Chen; Songjia Lai

doi:10.2147/DMSO.S284246

Screening and Identification of Differentially Expressed and Adipose Growth-Related Protein-Coding Genes During the Deposition of Perirenal Adipose Tissue in Rabbits

Diabetes Metab Syndr Obes. 2020 Dec 1:13:4669-4680. doi: 10.2147/DMSO.S284246. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Guoze Wang^#^{1

2}, Kun Du^#¹, Zhenjian Xie³, Renyong Tang³, Xianbo Jia¹, Shiyi Chen¹, Songjia Lai¹

Affiliations

¹ Farm Animal Genetic Resources Exploration and Innovation Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, People's Republic of China.
² College of Food Science, Guizhou Medical University, Guiyang 550025, People's Republic of China.
³ College of Pharmacy and Biological Engineering, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106, People's Republic of China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Rabbit is a good model for genetic and medical studies in other livestock species. The rabbit shows low adipose tissue deposition, and the phenomena indicates that there is some specificity of adipose deposition during the rabbit growth. However, little is known about genes that regulate the growth of adipose tissue in rabbits.

Materials and methods: Deep RNA-seq and comprehensive bioinformatics analyses were used to characterize the genes of rabbit visceral adipose tissue (VAT) at 35, 85 and 120 days after birth. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified at the three growth stages by DESeq. To explore the function of the candidate genes, Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses were performed. Six DEGs were randomly selected, and their expression profiles were validated by q-PCR.

Results: A total of 20,303 known transcripts and 99,199 new transcripts from 8 RNA sequencing libraries were identified, and 34 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened. GO enrichment and KEGG pathway analyses revealed that the DEGs were mainly involved in lipid metabolism regulation including acylglycerol metabolic process and mobilization, and decomposition of lipids to generate ATP in adipocytes and fatty acid metabolism, included LOC100342322 and LOC100342572. In addition, 133 protein-coding genes that play a role in adipose growth and development were screened, including acyl-CoA synthetase long-chain family member 5 (ACSL5) and fatty acid-binding protein 2 (FABP2). The validation results of six DEGs by q-PCR showed similar trends with the results of RNA-seq.

Conclusion: In summary, this study provides the first report of the coding genes profiles of rabbit adipose tissue during different growth stages. These data allow for the identification of candidate genes for subsequent studies on rabbit genetics and regulation of adipose cells, and provide an animal model for studying obesity in humans.

Keywords: RNA-seq; adipose tissue; fat deposition; growth; protein-coding gene; rabbit.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by National rabbit industry technology system (CARS-43-A-2), Academic New Seedling Project of Guizhou Medical University (19NSP070) and Doctor Start-up Project of Guizhou Medical University (YJ2019005).