Frontiers in Genetics (Jan 2020)

m6A Methylation Analysis of Differentially Expressed Genes in Skin Tissues of Coarse and Fine Type Liaoning Cashmere Goats

  • Yanru Wang,
  • Yuanyuan Zheng,
  • Dan Guo,
  • Xinghui Zhang,
  • Suling Guo,
  • Taiyu Hui,
  • Chang Yue,
  • Jiaming Sun,
  • Suping Guo,
  • Zhixian Bai,
  • Weidong Cai,
  • Xinjiang Zhang,
  • Yixing Fan,
  • Zeying Wang,
  • Wenlin Bai

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2019.01318
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10

Abstract

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N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most common internal modification in mRNAs of all higher eukaryotes. Here we perform two high-throughput sequencing methods, m6A-modified RNA immunoprecipitation sequence (MeRIP-seq) and RNA sequence (RNA-seq) to identify key genes with m6A modification in cashmere fiber growth. A total of 9,085 m6A sites were differentially RNA m6A methylated as reported from by MeRIP-seq, including 7,170 upregulated and 1,915 downregulated. In addition, by comparing m6A-modified genes between the fine-type Liaoning cashmere goat (FT-LCG) and coarse-type Liaoning Cashmere Goat (CT-LCG) skin samples, we obtain 1,170 differentially expressed genes. In order to identify the differently methylated genes related to cashmere fiber growth, 19 genes were selected to validate by performing qRT-PCR in FT-LCG and CT-LCG. In addition, GO enrichment analysis shows that differently methylated genes are mainly involved in keratin filament and intermediate filament. These findings provide a theoretical basis for future research on the function of m6A modification during the growth of cashmere fiber.

Keywords