LncRNAs Function as Critical Metabolic Regulators in yak Liver by Integrative Transcriptome Analysis
Abstract Background: The yak (Bos grunniens) is a crucial resource to supply meat and milk to the people localized in Qinghai-Tibetan plateau area. To identify lncRNAs regulating metabolism in yak, this work adopted transcriptome method to simultaneously profile mRNAs and lncRNAs of liver in yak under three representative age (LD: Liver 1 Day, LM: Liver 15 Months, LY: Liver 5 Years) conditions.Result: Of 288 differentially expressed lncRNAs, function-oriented selection yield 88 regulated metabolically related lncRNAs that were differentially expressed at least two age conditions. These lncRNAs predicted by lncRNA-mRNA correlation analysis to function in various aspects of metabolism. Selected regulations of liver metabolically related lncRNAs were further verified by qRT-PCR.Conclusion: Combining high throughput RNA-seq screening screens, bioinformatics predictions, lncRNA-mRNA correlation analysis and qRT-PCR analysis, this study supports that a class of lncRNAs function as important metabolic regulators and establishes a foundation for further investigating the role of lncRNAs in yak.