A newly identified lncRNA lnc000100 regulates proliferation and differentiation of cattle skeletal muscle cells.

Cattle skeletal muscle development is a complex and highly coordinated biological process mediated by a series of myogenic regulators, which plays a critical role in beef yield and quality. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been shown to regulate skeletal muscle development. However, the molecular mechanism by which lncRNAs regulate skeletal muscle development is largely unknown. We performed transcriptome analysis of muscle tissues of adult and embryo Angus cattle to investigate the mechanism by which lncRNA regulates skeletal muscle development between adult and embryo cattle. A total of 37,115 candidate lncRNAs were detected, and a total of 1,998 lncRNAs were differentially expressed between the muscle tissue libraries of adult and embryo cattle, including 1,229 up-regulated lncRNAs and 769 down-regulated lncRNAs (adult cattle were the control group). We verified the expression of 7 differentially expressed lncRNAs by quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR), and analysed the tissue expression profile of lnc000100, which is down-regulated in the longest dorsal muscle during foetal life and which is highly specifically expressed in muscle tissue. We found that the interference of lnc000100 significantly inhibited cell proliferation and promoted cell differentiation. Lnc000100 was located in the nucleus by RNA-FISH. Our research provides certain resources for the analysis of lncRNA regulating cattle skeletal muscle development, and may also provide new insights for improving beef production and breed selection.