Discovery and functional study of lncRNAs associated with fat deposition in Kele pigs based on whole-transcriptome RNA sequencing.

Objective: This study was conducted to identify lncRNAs associated with fat deposition in Kele pigs and investigate their molecular regulatory mechanisms.

Methods: Six healthy 10-month-old male Kele pigs were selected as the experimental subjects and divided into high backfat thickness (>5%, H) and low backfat thickness group (<5%, L). Subcutaneous adipose tissue of each group was collected for whole-transcriptome RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). Subsequently, the biological functions of identified lncRNAs were investigated to explore their regulatory mechanisms on fat deposition in Kele pigs.

Results: RNA-seq revealed 493 differentially expressed lncRNAs (p<0.05), with TCONS_00185937 and TCONS_00161198 implicated in fat deposition. Correlation analysis showed that the expression of TCONS_00185937 was significantly negatively correlated with backfat thickness, and the expression of TCONS_00161198 was significantly positively correlated with backfat thickness, and negatively correlated with eye muscle area. The pEGFP-TCONS_00185937 was transfected into subcutaneous fat precursor cells, it was found that the expression levels of TCONS_00185937 and its target genes MOGAT2 and ATGL were significantly higher than control group (p<0.05). Similarly, pEGFP-TCONS_00161198 transfected cells found that the expression levels of TCONS_00161198 and its target genes CSF3R and ACC were significantly higher than control group (p<0.05). The induced differentiation of transfected cells found that the OD510 absorption value of pEGFP-TCONS_00161198 group was higher than that of the control group. Triglyceride content was significantly higher than that of control group (p<0.01), while OD510 absorption value and triglyceride content of pEGFP-TCONS_00185937 group were lower than that of control group.

Conclusion: The above results indicate that TCONS_00161198 and TCONS_00185937 may have regulatory effects on their target genes, thereby affecting fat deposition in pig subcutaneous fat precursor cells. This work provides a theoretical basis for the regulation of fat deposition in Kele pigs.