Expression of miRNAs in turkey muscle satellite cells and differential response to thermal challenge

Kent M Reed; Kristelle M Mendoza; Thomas Kono; Ashley A Powell; Gale M Strasburg; Sandra G Velleman

doi:10.3389/fphys.2023.1293264

Expression of miRNAs in turkey muscle satellite cells and differential response to thermal challenge

Front Physiol. 2023 Nov 23:14:1293264. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2023.1293264. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Kent M Reed¹, Kristelle M Mendoza¹, Thomas Kono², Ashley A Powell¹, Gale M Strasburg³, Sandra G Velleman⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, United States.
² Minnesota Supercomputing Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States.
³ Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, United States.
⁴ Department of Animal Sciences, The Ohio State University, Wooster, OH, United States.

Abstract

Thermal stress alters the transcriptome and subsequent tissue physiology of poultry; thus, it can negatively impact poultry production through reduced meat quality, egg production, and health and wellbeing. The modulation of gene expression is critical to embryonic development and cell proliferation, and growing evidence suggests the role of non-coding RNAs (RNA:RNA interaction) in response to thermal stress in animals. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) comprise a class of small regulatory RNAs that modulate gene expression through posttranscriptional interactions and regulate mRNAs, potentially altering numerous cellular processes. This study was designed to identify and characterize the differential expression of miRNAs in satellite cells (SCs) from the turkey pectoralis major muscle and predict important miRNA:mRNA interactions in these developing SCs under a thermal challenge. Small RNA sequencing was performed on RNA libraries prepared from SCs cultured from 1-week-old male Nicholas commercial turkeys (NCTs) and non-selected Randombred Control Line 2 turkeys during proliferation and differentiation at the control temperature (38°C) or under a thermal challenge (33°C or 43°C). A total of 353 miRNAs (161 known and 192 novel) were detected across the sequenced libraries. Expression analysis found fewer differentially expressed miRNAs in the SCs of NCT birds, suggesting that the miRNA response to heat stress has been altered in birds selected for their modern commercial growth traits. Differentially expressed miRNAs, including those with described roles in muscle development, were detected both among temperature treatments and between genetic lines. A prominent differential expression of miR-206 was found in proliferating turkey SCs with a significant response to thermal challenges in both lines. In differentiating SCs, isoforms of miR-1 had significant differential responses, with the expression of miR-206 being mainly affected only by cold treatment. Target gene predictions and Gene Ontology analysis suggest that the differential expression of miRNAs during thermal stress could significantly affect cellular proliferation and differentiation.

Keywords: growth selection; microRNA; satellite cell; skeletal muscle; turkey.

Grants and funding

The authors declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was financially supported by the United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food Agriculture, AFRI competitive grant no. 2020-67015-30827 to GS, KR, and SV and a UMII Seed Grant to KR.