本实验室前期研究发现,miR-101a对山羊骨骼肌卫星细胞(skeletal muscle satellite cells, SMSCs)分化有促进作用,但其具体作用机制并不清楚。本研究利用PicTar、TargetScan和miRanda软件在线预测miR-101a的靶基因,并通过双荧光素酶报告基因进行实验验证;检测了山羊SMSCs分化不同时期miR-101a和靶基因的表达关系,同时分析了超表达和抑制miR-101a对靶基因表达水平的影响。结果证实,zeste增强子同源物2(enhancer of zeste homologue 2, EZH2)基因mRNA的3°UTR具有miR-101a结合位点,是miR-101a的一个靶基因。在SMSCs分化过程中,随着miR-101a表达水平的升高,EZH2的表达在mRNA和蛋白水平均下调。抑制miR-101a后,EZH2的表达极显著升高(P<0.01),但是在超表达miR-101a条件下,EZH2表达变化在mRNA和蛋白水平均不显著(P>0.05)。以上研究结果表明,miR-101a能通过抑制EZH2的表达来促进山羊SMSCs分化,为进一步阐明miR-101a对SMSCs的调控机制提供了理论依据。

miR-101a promotes the differentiation of goat skeletal muscle satellite cells (SMSCs), as we previously reported, but the underpinning mechanism remains to be illuminated. In this study, we predicted the target gene of miR-101a by employing online softwares PicTar, TargetScan and miRanda, and found that enhancer of zeste homologue 2 (EZH2) was targeted by miR-101a. Further we identified that EZH2 contained miR-101a binding sites at its 3'UTR by using the dual-luciferase reporter assay system. In addition, we showed that during SMSC differentiation, the downregulated levels of EZH2 mRNA and protein were accompanied by increasing miR-101a expression via qRT-PCR and Western blot. Additionally, the expression of EZH2 significantly increased (P<0.01) when miR-101a was suppressed, whereas overexpressing miR-101a almost had no effect on EZH2 expression (P>0.05). These data demonstrated that miR-101a promotes SMSC differentiation directly through EZH2, which provides a theoretical reference for further elucidating the mechanism of miR-101a in SMSC differentiation.