Profiling of N6-methyladenosine methylation in porcine longissimus dorsi muscle and unravelling the hub gene ADIPOQ promotes adipogenesis in an m^(6)A-YTHDF1–dependent manner

Background Intramuscular fat(IMF)content is a critical indicator of pork quality,and abnormal IMF is also relevant to human disease as well as aging.Although N6-methyladenosine(m^(6)A)RNA modification was recently found to regulate adipogenesis in porcine intramuscular fat,however,the underlying molecular mechanisms was still unclear.Results In this work,we collected 20 longissimus dorsi muscle samples with high(average 3.95%)or low IMF content(average 1.22%)from a unique heterogenous swine population for m^(6)A sequencing(m^(6)A-seq).We discovered 70genes show both differential RNA expression and m^(6)A modification from high and low IMF group,including ADIPOQ and SFRP1,two hub genes inferred through gene co-expression analysis.Particularly,we observed ADIPOQ,which contains three m^(6)A modification sites within 3’untranslated and protein coding region,could promote porcine intramuscular preadipocyte differentiation in an m^(6)A-dependent manner.Furthermore,we found the YT521-B homology domain family protein 1(YTHDF1)could target and promote ADIPOQ mRNA translation.Conclusions Our study provided a comprehensive profiling of m^(6)A methylation in porcine longissimus dorsi muscle and characterized the involvement of m^(6)A epigenetic modification in the regulation of ADIPOQ mRNA on IMF deposition through an m^(6)A-YTHDF1-dependent manner.