RESUMEN
The African BioGenome Project (AfricaBP) Open Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics aims to overcome barriers to capacity building through its distributed African regional workshops and prioritizes the exchange of grassroots knowledge and innovation in biodiversity genomics and bioinformatics. In 2023, we implemented 28 workshops on biodiversity genomics and bioinformatics, covering 11 African countries across the 5 African geographical regions. These regional workshops trained 408 African scientists in hands-on molecular biology, genomics and bioinformatics techniques as well as the ethical, legal and social issues associated with acquiring genetic resources. Here, we discuss the implementation of transformative strategies, such as expanding the regional workshop model of AfricaBP to involve multiple countries, institutions and partners, including the proposed creation of an African digital database with sequence information relating to both biodiversity and agriculture. This will ultimately help create a critical mass of skilled genomics and bioinformatics scientists across Africa.
RESUMEN
MicroRNAs (miRNA) play an important role in regulating gene expression, making them important resources for exploring molecular mechanisms. Molecular mechanisms involved in the inflammatory responses of bovine endometrial cells induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) have not been widely studied. In the present study, miRNA and mRNA expression profiling of bovine endometrial cells treated with 1 µg/mL LPS for 24 h were evaluated by RNA-Seq (RNA-sequencing). The results showed that LPS induced 20 (11 up- and 9 down-regulated) differentially-expressed miRNAs and 108 (90 up- and 18 down-regulated) differentially-expressed mRNAs of bovine endometrial cells. The results for 5 mRNAs and 4 miRNAs were evaluated by quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) to validate the reliability of the RNA-seq data. Integrating analysis of the miRNA and mRNA expression profiles revealed 116 miRNA-target gene pairs. GO and KEGG pathway analysis of differentially expressed miRNAs and target genes predicted the likely roles of differentially expressed miRNAs in inflammatory responses in bovine endometrial cells induced by LPS. The reliability of the integrating analysis of the miRNA and mRNA data were validated by measuring the expression of three miRNA-target gene pairs by qRT-PCR. Our results improve the understanding of the role of miRNA involvement in inflammatory response of bovine endometrial cells induced by LPS.