W. -Y. Chu, L. -S. Liu, L. Chen, P. -H. Yang, Y. -L. Li, Y. -H. Wang, J. -H. Wang, P. Wu, X. Zhu and J. -S. Zhang Pages 772 - 779 ( 8 )
Parvalbumins (PVALBs) are particularly abundant in the fast-contracting muscles and correlate positively with muscle relaxation speed in amphibians and fishes. MiRNAs play important roles in diverse biologic processes <i>via</i> binding to the 3’ untranslated region (3’UTR) of the target mRNAs. In the study, four PVALB isoforms, named as PVALB1, 2, 3, and 4, were identified in the mandarin fish (<i>Siniperca chuatsi</i>) fast muscle and PVALB4 exhibited the highest expression level among them. By bioinformatics analysis, a putative miR-181a binding site in PVALB4 was detected and the direct interaction between miR-181a and PVALB4 was confirmed with the luciferase reporter assay. Further, when miR-181a was inhibited, it substantially increased PVALB4 mRNA expression level and the muscle relaxation rate <i>in vivo</i>. Taken together, the obtained results suggest that miRNA-181a/PVALB4 is an evolutionarily conserved miRNAtarget pair and their interaction is correlated with muscle relaxation rate in the mandarin fish. Therefore, the study revealed a novel molecular mechanism in the regulation of skeletal muscle relaxation in fish.
miR-181a, muscle relaxation, parvalbumins, regulation, Siniperca chuatsi.
, , , , , , , , , Department of Bioengineering and Environmental Science, Changsha University, Changsha, Hunan 410003, China.