CircRNAs play important roles in chicken's growth. In this context, we studied the expression profiles of circRNAs between the GHR antisense transcript overexpressed and the control groups of chicken hepatocytes by using the deep RNA-sequencing technique to identify the key circRNAs involved in chicken's growth. A total of 4772 circRNAs were detected in both groups and 92 circRNAs displayed significant differential expression between two groups. Reactome pathway analysis on the parental genes of differential circRNAs indicated that most enriched and meaningful 9 pathways were related to “Mitotic G1-G1/S-M phases”, and “FGFR2c ligand binding and activation”. Additionally, Five exonic circRNAs were confirmed including circGHR separated from GHR. CircGHR developed in HuaiXiang chicken from d 1 to 5 w of age and was expressed at a higher level in the nucleus than in the cytoplasm. Moreover, our results specify 5 circRNAs target sites for microRNA Let-7b that is expected to target GHR mRNA, signifying their potential role in regulating GHR gene expression in chicken.

CircRNA在鸡的生长中起重要作用。在这种情况下，我们研究了GHR之间circRNA的表达谱通过使用深RNA测序技术来鉴定参与鸡生长的关键circRNA，从而使反义转录本和鸡肝细胞的对照组过度表达。两组共检测到4772个circRNA，两组之间有92个circRNA显着差异表达。对差异circRNA亲本基因进行的反应组途径分析表明，最丰富和有意义的9种途径与“有丝分裂G1-G1 / SM期”和“ FGFR2c配体结合与激活”有关。另外，证实了五个外显子circRNA，包括从GHR分离的circGHR。CircGHR在1到5 w的怀香鸡中发育，并在细胞核中比在细胞质中以更高的水平表达。此外，我们的结果为microRNA Let-7b指定了5个circRNAs目标位点有望靶向GHR mRNA，表明其在调节鸡GHR基因表达中的潜在作用。