Selected microRNA-192 mutant indicates association with several function genes in bovine cells

Abstract

MicroRNAs are implicated in many cellular processes such as cell differentiation and development, tumorigenesis, and immune regulation. In this study, miR192 was detected using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) when MDBK cells were exposed to Escherichia coli. Cells with malfunction of bta-miR-192 were established using transcription activator-like effector nuclease (TALEN) technology. Finally, bta-miR-192 mutant cells were screened for differentially expressed genes using RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq). The results showed that miR192 significantly decreased in cells exposed to E. coli F18ac and E. coli K88ac. The RNA-seq results showed that 1673 differentially expressed transcripts were identified; 890 genes were upregulated and 775 genes were downregulated. With the gene ontology enrichment analysis, 431 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were classified into 937 gene ontology terms. The pathway enrichment analysis showed that 535 genes were involved in 254 pathway terms. Interestingly, most of these DEGs were associated with the pathways in cancers or infectious diseases. When the selected DEGs (n = 162) in these pathways were intersected with 120 differential transcripts, 11 DEGs were identified. Subsequently, several genes associated with regulation, cancers, or viral infections, such as LEF1, AXIN2, MX1, and FCGR2B, were identified among the DEGs using functional analysis. Furthermore, associations between bta-miR-192 and DEGs were detected by intersecting the bta-miR-192's target genes with the DEGs, indicating that three genes including CBL, DICER1 and TRERF1 were involved in this relationship. These findings provided useful guidance for investigating the role played by bta-miR-192 in cellular functionality in bovine cells.