Muscle development is regulated by a series of complicate processes, and non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) such as lncRNA have been reported to play important roles in regulating skeletal myogenesis and diseases. Here we profile the expression of lncRNA in cattle skeletal muscle tissue from fetus and adult developmental stages and detect 13,580 lncRNA candidates. Many of these lncRNAs are differentially expressed between two developmental stages. We further characterize one abundant lncRNA with the highest expression level of all downregulated lncRNAs, which we named muscle differentiation-associated lncRNA (MDNCR). Via luciferase screening, RNA binding protein immunoprecipitation (RIP), and RNA pull-down assays, MDNCR was observed to directly bind to miR-133a with 32 potential binding sites. GosB was identified as a target of miR-133a by luciferase activity, quantitative real-time qPCR, and western blotting assays. Overexpression of MDNCR increased the expression of GosB, whereas this effect was abolished by miR-133a. We found that MDNCR promotes myoblast differentiation and inhibits cell proliferation by sponging miR-133a. These results demonstrate that MDNCR binding miR-133a promotes cell differentiation by targeting GosB in cattle primary myoblasts.

肌肉的发育受一系列复杂过程的调节，据报道，诸如lncRNA的非编码RNA（ncRNA）在调节骨骼肌发生和疾病中起重要作用。在这里，我们剖析了lncRNA在胎儿和成年发育阶段的牛骨骼肌组织中的表达，并检测到13,580个lncRNA候选物。这些lncRNA中的许多在两个发育阶段之间差异表达。我们进一步表征了一种丰富的lncRNA，在所有下调的lncRNA中具有最高的表达水平，我们将其命名为与肌肉分化相关的lncRNA（MDNCR）。通过萤光素酶筛选，RNA结合蛋白免疫沉淀（RIP）和RNA下拉检测，观察到MDNCR直接与miR-133a结合并具有32个潜在结合位点。通过荧光素酶活性，实时定量qPCR和Western印迹分析，GosB被确定为miR-133a的靶标。MDNCR的过表达增加了GosB的表达，而miR-133a取消了这种作用。我们发现，MDNCR通过使miR-133a变海绵来促进成肌细胞分化并抑制细胞增殖。这些结果证明MDNCR结合miR-133a通过靶向牛原代成肌细胞中的GosB来促进细胞分化。