Resveratrol stimulates microRNA expression during differentiation of bovine primary myoblasts

Background: Resveratrol (RSV), a phenolic compound, is present in many human dietary sources, such as peanuts, peanut butter, grapes skin, and grape wine. RSV has been widely known for its benefits on human health. Beef from cattle skeletal muscle is one of the main sources of protein for human consumption. Previous studies have also found that pork and chicken qualities are influenced by the feed supplementation with RSV. In addition, our previous study demonstrated the RSV effects on bovine myoblast differentiation using messenger RNA (mRNA) data. In this study, we mainly focused on the influences of RSV on microRNA (miRNA) expression. Method: We used 20 ìM RSV to treat primary bovine myoblasts and extracted RNA for miRNA sequencing. After quality control and alignment for clean reads, we conducted quantification and analysis of differentially expressed (DE) miRNAs in the case (RSV-treated) group versus control (non-RSV treated) group. Next, we predicted the target genes for the DE miRNAs and analyzed them for the enrichments of Gene Ontology (GO) terms and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways. Results: Finally, we identified 93 DE miRNAs (adjusted P-value < 0.05), of them 44 were upregulated and 49 were downregulated. Bta-miR-34c was the most significantly upregulated miRNA. In silico, prediction results indicated 1,869 target genes for the 93 DE miRNAs. GO enrichment analysis for the genes targeted by DE miRNAs revealed two significant GO terms (adjusted P-value < 0.05), in which the most significant one was stereocilium (GO:0032420). KEGG enrichment analysis showed five significant pathways, and the top significant KEGG pathway was the insulin signaling pathway (bta04910) (adjusted P-value < 0.05). Conclusions: This study provided an improved understanding of effects of RSV on primary bovine myoblast differentiation through the miRNA modulations. The results suggested that RSV could promote differentiation of primary bovine myoblast by stimulating the miRNA expressions. The target genes of DE miRNAs were significantly enriched in the insulin signaling pathway, thus potentially contributing to improving muscle leanness by increasing the energy metabolism.