miR-223 is an important miRNA. It plays important roles in lipid metabolism by targeting related genes in mammals. It may be related to fatty liver in laying hens and its functions and target genes need further study. Through bioinformatics, we found that 349 genes were predicted as target genes of miR-223. Lipid-related gene DAGLA was among the predicted target genes. Dual-luciferase reporter assays showed that DAGLA was the target gene of miR-223 and the site mutation assays validated the target site of miR-223 in DAGLA. Overexpression of miR-223 in chicken hepatocytes LMH decreased the mRNA and protein expression of DAGLA, while knockdown of miR-223 increased expression of DAGLA in LMH cells, further indicating that miR-223 targets DAGLA and downregulates its expression. Since the target site of miR-223 in chicken DAGLA is not conserved, these findings suggest that miR-223 plays a specific role in chicken liver by regulating expression of target gene DAGLA.

miR-223是重要的miRNA。它通过靶向哺乳动物的相关基因在脂质代谢中发挥重要作用。它可能与蛋鸡的脂肪肝有关，其功能和靶基因有待进一步研究。通过生物信息学，我们发现349个基因被预测为miR-223的靶基因。脂质相关基因DAGLA是预测的目标基因之一。双荧光素酶报告基因检测表明DAGLA是miR-223的靶基因，位点突变检测验证了miRNA -223在DAGLA中的靶位。鸡肝细胞LMH中miR-223的过表达降低了DAGLA的mRNA和蛋白表达，而敲低miR-223则增加了DAGLA的表达在LMH细胞中，它进一步表明miR-223靶向DAGLA，并下调其表达。由于miR-223在鸡DAGLA中的靶位点不保守，因此这些发现表明miR-223通过调节靶基因DAGLA的表达在鸡肝中起特定作用。