Review: Role and regulatory mechanism of inhibin in animal reproductive system.

Inhibin (INH) is a glycoprotein hormone secreted by the gonads that inhibit the synthesis and secretion of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH). Increasing evidence indicates that INH plays a significant role in the development of the reproductive system including follicle development, ovulation rate, corpus luteum formation and ablation, steroid hormone synthesis and spermatogenesis, subsequently affecting the reproductive capacity of animals such as litter size and egg production. There are currently three main views on how INH inhibits FSH synthesis and secretion: influencing the activity of adenylate cyclase, the expression of follicle-stimulating hormone receptor or gonadotropin-releasing hormone receptor, and the competition system of inhibin-activin. This review discusses the current findings on the structure, function, and mechanism of action of INH in the reproductive system of animals.

MiRNA sequencing of Embryonic Myogenesis in Chengkou Mountain Chicken.

BACKGROUND: Skeletal muscle tissue is among the largest organ systems in mammals, essential for survival and movement. Embryonic muscle development determines the quantity and quality of muscles after the birth of an individual. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a significant class of non-coding RNAs that bind to the 3'UTR region of mRNA to regulate gene function. Total RNA was extracted from the leg muscles of chicken embryos in different developmental stages of Chengkou Mountain Chicken and used to generate 171,407,341 clean small RNA reads. Target prediction, GO, and KEGG enrichment analyses determined the significantly enriched genes and pathways. Differential analysis determined the significantly different miRNAs between chicken embryo leg muscles at different developmental stages. Meanwhile, the weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) identified key modules in different developmental stages, and the hub miRNAs were screened following the KME value. RESULTS: The clean reads contained 2047 miRNAs, including 721 existing miRNAs, 1059 known miRNAs, and 267 novel miRNAs. Many genes and pathways related to muscle development were identified, including ERBB4, MEF2C, FZD4, the Wnt, Notch, and MAPK signaling pathways. The WGCNA established the greenyellow module and gga-miR-130b-5p for E12, magenta module and gga-miR-1643-5p for E16, purple module and gga-miR-12218-5p for E19, cyan module and gga-miR-132b-5p for E21. CONCLUSION: These results lay a foundation for further research on the molecular regulatory mechanism of embryonic muscle development in Chengkou mountain chicken and provide a reference for other poultry and livestock muscle development studies.