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. 2021 Aug 10:9:707572.
doi: 10.3389/fcell.2021.707572. eCollection 2021.

Differential Expression Profiles and Function Predictions for tRFs & tiRNAs in Skin Injury Induced by Ultraviolet Irradiation

Yuan Fang  1 , Yang Liu  1 , Yu Yan  2 , Yiyu Shen  1 , Zenan Li  1 , Xu Li  1 , Yufang Zhang  3 , Zhigang Xue  4 , Cong Peng  5   6   7   8 , Xiang Chen  5   6   7   8 , Ke Cao  1 , Jianda Zhou  1
Affiliations

Differential Expression Profiles and Function Predictions for tRFs & tiRNAs in Skin Injury Induced by Ultraviolet Irradiation

Yuan Fang et al. Front Cell Dev Biol. .

Abstract

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a major environmental factor contributing skin damage. As UV exposure is inevitable, it is necessary to pay attention to the underlying molecular mechanisms of UV-induced skin damage to develop effective therapies. tRNA-derived stress-induced RNAs (tiRNAs) and tRNA-derived fragments (tRFs) are tRNA-derived small RNAs (tsRNAs) that are a novel class of short, non-coding RNAs. However, the functions behind tRFs & tiRNAs in UV-induced skin injury are not yet clear. Firstly, the animal model of ultraviolet irradiation induced skin damage was established. Then the skin samples were preserved for the follow-up experiment. Sequencing was used to screen expression profiles and predict target genes. Compared with normal skin, a total of 31 differentially expressed tRFs & tiRNAs were screened. Among these, 10 tRFs & tiRNAs were shown to be significantly different in expression levels, where there were 4 up-regulated and 6 down-regulated target genes. Bioinformatics analyses revealed potential up-regulated tsRNAs (tRF-Val-AAC-012, tRF-Pro-AGG-012, tRF-Val-CAC-018, tRF-Val-AAC-031) and down-regulated tsRNAs (tRF-Arg-CCT-002, tRF-Trp-TCA-001, tiRNA-Ser-GCT-001, tRF-Gly-CCC-019, tRF-Ala-TGC-001, tRF-Ala-TGC-002). In summary, it was speculated that tRF-Gly-CCC-019 plays an important role in acute skin injury induced by UVB radiation by regulating the ras-related C3 botulinum toxin substrate 1 (Rac1) gene in the WNT signaling pathway. This study provides new insights into the mechanisms and therapeutic targets of UV-induced skin injury.

Keywords: bioinformatics; sequencing; skin injury; tRF & tiRNA; ultraviolet irradiation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
tRF & tiRNA-seq experiment workflow.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Histological changes of dorsal skin in mice exposed to different doses of UVB irradiation. These show the magnification is 10 times under an optical microscope. (A) Control group; (B) The experimental group received radiation dose of 90 mJ/cm2; (C) The experimental group received radiation dose of 180 mJ/cm2; (D) The experimental group received radiation dose of 360 mJ/cm2.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
The analysis of subtypes tRF & tiRNA. (A–D) Pie chart of the distribution of subtypes tRF & tiRNA. The values in bracket are represented the number of subtypes tRF & tiRNA. The color represents the subtypes tRF & tiRNA. (E–H) The number of subtypes tRF & tiRNA against tRNA isodecoders. The X axis represents tRNA isodecoders and the Y axis show the number of all subtypes tRF & tiRNA. (I–L) The frequency of subtype against length of the tRF & tiRNA. The X axis represents length of tRF & tiRNA and the Y axis show the frequency of the subtypes against length of tRF & tiRNA.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Bioinformatic Prediction. (A) Heatmap enriched terms colored by p-values. (B) Network of enriched terms colored by p-value, where terms containing more genes tend to have a more significant p-value. (C) Protein-protein interaction (PPI) network.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Validation of the four selected tsRNAs using RT-qPCR verification for four tRFs & tiRNAs. Compared with the control group A, (A,B) tRF-Gly-CCC-019 and tRF-Trp-TCA-001 were down-regulated; (C,D) tRF-Val-AAC-012 and tRF-Val-CAC-018 were up-regulated. The data were normalized using the mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM). *P ≤0.05, **P ≤0.01, ***P ≤0.001.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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