Emerging Roles of Noncoding RNAs in Bovine Mastitis Diseases

Abstract

Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are an abundant class of RNA with varying nucleotide lengths. They have been shown to have great potential in eutherians/human disease diagnosis and treatments and are now gaining more importance for the improvement of diseases in livestock. To date, thousands of ncRNAs have been discovered in the bovine genome and the continuous advancement in deep sequencing technologies and various bioinformatics tools has enabled the elucidation of their roles in bovine health. Among farm animals' diseases, mastitis, a common inflammatory disease in cattle, has caused devastating economic losses to dairy farmers over the last few decades. Here, we summarize the biology of bovine mastitis and comprehensively discuss the roles of ncRNAs in different types of mastitis infection. Based on our findings and relevant literature, we highlighted various evidence of ncRNA roles in mastitis. Different approaches (in vivo versus in vitro) for exploring ncRNA roles in mastitis are emphasized. More particularly, the potential applications of emerging genome editing technologies, as well as integrated omics platforms for ncRNA studies and implications for mastitis are presented.

Keywords: circRNAs; lncRNAs; mastitis; miRNAs; next generation of sequencing.

Figure 1

Potential roles of non-coding RNAs [19,20,21].

Figure 2

Some aspects of mastitis biology.

Figure 3

Schematic representation of confirmed miRNA–mRNA (gene) interaction in mastitis-induced tissues/cell. Infection by pathogens activates cascades of events that cause dysregulation of signification pathways, leading to inflammation of the udder. Each gene represented here is regulated by the respective miRNAs, subsequently dysregulating any of the represented signaling pathways (see Table 3).

Figure 4

(a) lncRNA–miRNA–mRNA network in mastitis and (b) the different stages for the development of ncRNAs as biomarkers for mastitis infection.