Profiling of N6-methyladenosine methylation in porcine longissimus dorsi muscle and unravelling the hub gene ADIPOQ promotes adipogenesis in an m6A-YTHDF1-dependent manner

• Published in: 畜牧与生物技术杂志（英文版） 2023, Vol.14 (3), p.950-965
• Main Authors: Huanfa Gong, Tao Gong, Youhua Liu, Yizhen Wang, Xinxia Wang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1674-9782

Background Intramuscular fat(IMF)content is a critical indicator of pork quality,and abnormal IMF is also relevant to human disease as well as aging.Although N6-methyladenosine(m6A)RNA modification was recently found to regu-late adipogenesis in porcine intramuscular fat,however,the underlying molecular mechanisms was still unclear.Results In this work,we collected 20 longissimus dorsi muscle samples with high(average 3.95％)or low IMF content(average 1.22％)from a unique heterogenous swine population for m6A sequencing(m6A-seq).We discovered 70 genes show both differential RNA expression and m6A modification from high and low IMF group,including ADIPOQ and SFRP1,two hub genes inferred through gene co-expression analysis.Particularly,we observed ADIPOQ,which contains three m6A modification sites within 3'untranslated and protein coding region,could promote porcine intra-muscular preadipocyte differentiation in an m6A-dependent manner.Furthermore,we found the YT521-B homology domain family protein 1(YTHDF1)could target and promote ADIPOQ mRNA translation.Conclusions Our study provided a comprehensive profiling of m6A methylation in porcine longissimus dorsi muscle and characterized the involvement of m6A epigenetic modification in the regulation of ADIPOQ mRNA on IMF deposi-tion through an m6A-YTHDF1-dependent manner.