Heat stress (HS) is directly correlated to mammary gland dysfunction in dairy cows, especially in summer. The hypothalamic-pituitary-mammary gland axis (HPM axis) plays an important role in the regulation of stress response and lactation physiology in heat-stressed dairy cows. The aim of this study was to explore the lncRNA profile, and the competitive endogenous RNA (ceRNA) regulatory network in hypothalamus, pituitary, and mammary gland tissues of heat-stressed and normal dairy cows. We performed RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to identify differentially expressed (DE) lncRNAs, and the ceRNA regulatory network was established in HPM-axis-related tissues. Our results showed that a total of 13, 702 and 202 DE lncRNAs were identified in hypothalamus, pituitary, and mammary glands, respectively. Of lncRNAs, 8, 209 and 45 were up-regulated, and 5, 493 and 157 lncRNAs were down-regulated. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses indicated that DE lncRNAs target genes that might play a role in hormone synthesis, secretion and action, apoptosis, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), and mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway. Moreover, the ceRNA regulatory network associated with the MAPK signaling pathway in HPM-axis-related tissues contains 3286 lncRNA-mRNA pairs. Furthermore, the ceRNA regulatory network associated with apoptosis, prolactin, AMPK, and mTOR signaling pathway in the mammary gland contains 772 lncRNA-mRNA pairs. Thus, some lncRNAs may be involved in the regulation of stress response and the physiological process of lactation. The changes in lncRNA expression profiles and ceRNAs (lncRNA-miRNA-mRNA) in HPM-axis-related tissues are the key to affect the stress response and lactation physiology of dairy cows under HS, which provide a theoretical basis for the molecular mechanism in the stress response of HPM-axis-related tissues in dairy cows under HS.
Keywords: ceRNA network; dairy cow; heat stress; hypothalamic-pituitary-mammary gland axis; lncRNA.