miR-181b-5p May Regulate Muscle Growth in Tilapia by Targeting Myostatin b

Zaoya Zhao; Xiaozheng Yu; Jirong Jia; Guokun Yang; Caiyun Sun; Wensheng Li

doi:10.3389/fendo.2019.00812

miR-181b-5p May Regulate Muscle Growth in Tilapia by Targeting Myostatin b

Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2019 Dec 3:10:812. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2019.00812. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Zaoya Zhao¹, Xiaozheng Yu¹, Jirong Jia¹, Guokun Yang¹, Caiyun Sun¹, Wensheng Li¹

Affiliation

¹ State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol, Institute of Aquatic Economic Animals and Guangdong Province Key Laboratory for Aquatic Economic Animals, Guangdong Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center of Healthy Breeding in Important Economic Fish, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.

Abstract

Background: Myostatin (Mstn), a member of the TGF-β superfamily, is a negative regulator of skeletal muscle mass in mammals. Precise regulation of Mstn expression is important for somite growth in fish. MicroRNA (miRNA), a type of small non-coding RNA, regulates gene expression at the post-transcriptional level and participates in various physiological functions. A growing amount of evidence has emphasized the importance of miRNA in the development of skeletal muscle. Aims: This study aims to study how miRNAs regulate myostatin b (mstnb) post-transcriptionally in tilapia. Methods/Results: Mstnb 3' UTR sequences were obtained, and the results of tissue distribution showed that mstnb was expressed in several tissues, including brain, white muscle, gut, and adipose tissue. A total of 1,992 miRNAs were predicted to target mstnb in tilapia using bioinformatics, and a dual-luciferase reporter experiment confirmed that miR-181a/b-5p, miR-30-3p, miR-200a, and miR-27a were the target miRNAs of mstnb. Mutagenesis of the miR-181b-5p binding sites of mstnb significantly increased the luciferase signal compared to the wild-type mstnb. In tilapia primary muscle cells, overexpression of miR-181b-5p led to the downregulation of MSTNb expression, and the inhibitory effect of MSTNb on the downstream genes was dismissed, while inhibition of miR-181b-5p could reverse these phenomena. Conclusion: Taken together, our results suggested that miR-181b-5p could promote the growth of skeletal muscle by decreasing the MSTNb protein level in tilapia.

Keywords: growth; microRNA; muscle; myostatin; primary muscle cells; tilapia.