Characterization and miRNA-mediated posttranscriptional regulation of vitelline membrane outer layer protein I in the adult chicken oviduct

• Published in: In vitro cellular & developmental biology. Animal 2015-03, Vol.51 (3), p.222-229
• Main Authors: In Lee, Sang, Ji, Mi-Ran, Jang, Ye-Jin, Jeon, Mi-hyang, Kim, Jeom Sun, Park, Jin-Ki, Jeon, Ik-Soo, Byun, Sung June
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: adults; Aging - genetics; Amino Acid Sequence; Animal Genetics and Genomics; Animals; Avian Proteins - genetics; Avian Proteins - metabolism; Base Sequence; Biomedical and Life Sciences; BIOTECHNOLOGY; cattle; Cell Biology; Cell Culture; Chickens - genetics; Chickens - growth & development; Databases, Nucleic Acid; Developmental Biology; egg albumen; egg shell; eggs; Estradiol - pharmacology; Female; Gene Expression Profiling; Gene Expression Regulation - drug effects; Gene Knockdown Techniques; genes; Genome; humans; laying hens; Life Sciences; messenger RNA; mice; microRNA; MicroRNAs - genetics; MicroRNAs - metabolism; Molecular Sequence Data; Oviducts - drug effects; Oviducts - growth & development; Oviducts - metabolism; ovomucin; Phylogeny; rats; Reproducibility of Results; RNA interference; Sequence Alignment; Sequence Analysis, Protein; Stem Cells; transcription (genetics); Transcription, Genetic - drug effects; vitelline membrane; Vitelline Membrane - drug effects; Vitelline Membrane - metabolism
• ISSN: 1071-2690; 1543-706X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11626-014-9826-2

The laying hen is the best model for oviduct growth and development. The chicken oviduct produces the egg components, including the egg white and eggshell. However, the mechanism of egg component production during oviduct development requires further investigation. Vitelline membrane outer layer protein 1 (VMO-1) is found in the outer layer of the vitelline membrane of avian eggs. Comparison of the chicken VMO-1 protein-coding sequence and the human, mouse, rat, and bovine VMO-1 proteins via multiple sequence alignment analysis revealed high degrees of homology of 55%, 53%, 48%, and 54%, respectively. Although the avian homologue of VMO-1 is highly expressed in the magnum of the oviduct, little is known about the transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulation of VMO-1 during oviduct development. The results of this study revealed that estrogen induces VMO-1 messenger RNA (mRNA) expression in oviduct cells in vitro. The expression of genes interacting with VMO-1 by RNA interference (RNAi) functional analysis revealed that ovomucin expression was decreased by VMO-1 silencing. In addition, gga-miR-1623, 1552-3p, and 1651-3p influenced VMO-1 expression via its 3′-UTR, suggesting the posttranscriptional regulation of VMO-1 expression in chickens. Collectively, these results suggest that VMO-1 is an estrogen-induced gene that is posttranscriptionally regulated by microRNAs (miRNAs). The present study may contribute to an understanding of egg component production during chicken oviduct development.