| Description |
As a nutrient sensor, placenta plays a key role in regulating fetus growth and development. Long intergenic noncoding RNAs (lincRNAs) have been identified to regulate growth-related traits. However, the biological function of lincRNAs in horse placenta remains enigmatic. To compare the expression patterns of lincRNAs in the placentas between the Chinese Ningqiang pony (NQ) and Yili horse (YL) breeds, a transcriptome analysis was performed following RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) technology. NQ, adult height less than 106 cm, is more short than that of YL (148 cm). Based on 813 million high-quality reads and stringent quality control procedures, 3,011 transcripts for 1,464 placental lincRNAs were identified and mapped to the horse reference genome. There were 107 differentially expressed lincRNAs (DELs) between the pony and horse breeds, including 68 up-regulated and 39 down-regulated DELs in the ponies. Six (TBX3, CACNA1F, EDN3, KAT5, ZNF281 and TGFB1) out of the 233 genes targeted by DELs were identified to be involved in limb development, skeletal myoblast differentiation and embryo development. Interestingly, one DEL was predicted to target the TBX3 gene that has been found under strong selection associated with small body size in the Chinese Debao pony breed. This finding suggests the potential functional significance of placental lincRNAs in regulating horse body size. |
