circRNA on animal skeletal muscle development regulation.

Circular RNA (circRNA) is a type of closed circular RNA molecules formed by reverse splicing, which exists widely in organisms and has become a research hotspot in non-coding RNAs in recent years. Skeletal muscle plays the role of coordinating movement and maintaining normal metabolism and endocrine in organisms. With the development of sequencing and bioinformatics analysis technology, the functions and regulation mechanisms of circRNAs in skeletal muscle development have been gradually revealed. In this review, we summarize the types of molecular regulatory mechanisms, the classical research ideas and the functional research methods of circRNAs, and the research progress of circRNAs involved in normal development of skeletal muscle and regulation of skeletal muscle disease, in order to provide a reference to further study of the genetic mechanisms of circRNAs in the regulation of skeletal muscle development.

Complete mitochondrial genome sequence of Chenghua pig (Sus Scrofa) and its phylogenetic analysis.

Chenghua pig is one of the famous indigenous breeds of Sichuan province in China. In the study, the complete mitochondrial genome of Chenghua pig was first determined. The total mitochondrial genome is 16,760 bp in length and its overall base composition of the circle genome is A (34.71%), T (25.79%), C (26.20%) and G (13.30%), respectively, indicating an A-T (60.50%)-rich feature. It contains the typical structure, including 22 transfer RNA genes, 13 protein-coding genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes and a major non-coding control region (D-Loop region). The D-loop region contains two different repeat motifs. According to the phylogenetic tree, we can infer that it is reasonable to divide Chenghua pig into the genus Sus Scrofa in southwest China. The mitochondrial genome would play an important role in population genetics and phylogenetic analysis of Sus Scrofa.

The complete sequence of the mitochondrial genome of Liangshan pig (Sus Scrofa).

Liangshan pig is one of the famous native breeds in Sichuan province in China. It lives in the mountainous areas (about 1500-2500 m altitude) and has a superior meat quality. Here, the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of Liangshan pig was first reported. The total length of mitochondrial genome is 16,760 bp, including 34.62% A, 25.79% T, 26.20%, C and 13.39% G, with an A + T bias of 60.41%. Mitochondrial genome contains a major non-coding control region (D-Loop region), two ribosomal RNA genes, 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), and 22 transfer RNA genes. The D-loop region is located between the tRNA-Pro and tRNA-Phe genes with a length of 1324 bp, some tandem repeat sequences was found in the region. The mitochondrial genome of Liangshan pig provides an important role in genetic mechanism.

[Application of modification-specific proteomics in the meat-quality study].

Post-translational modifications (PTMs) play an important role in life science. The most widely studied protein modifications in biological science include protein phosphorylation, acylation, glycosylation, ubiquitination, acetylation, oxidation, methylation and so on. This review outlines current achievements in the study of protein modifications in muscle food using proteomic approaches. First we describe the general knowledge of protein modifications and then the development of proteomic approaches for the characterization of such modifications. Second, we describe the effects of protein modifications on muscle foods and devote our main attention to the application of proteomic approaches for the analysis of these modifications. We conclude that proteomics analysis is powerful for the study of protein modifications and analysis of meat quality characteristics in the process of food production.

[The influence of satellite cells on meat quality and its differential regulation].

Satellite cell is a kind of myogenic stem cells, which plays an important role in muscle development and injury repair. Through proliferation, differentiation and fusion of muscle fiber can satellite cells make new myonuclear, leading to the hypertrophy of skeletal muscle and fiber type transformation, and this would further affect the meat quality. Here, we review the relationship between muscle fiber development and meat quality attributes as well as the influence of the satellite cell differentiation on muscle fiber character. Besides, we also summarize the classical signaling pathway (i.e., Notch etc.) and influence of epigenetic regulation (i.e. miRNA) on muscle quality.