Following a series of progress in the research of tilapia body color differentiation and regulation, the fish breeding team led by Prof. Dong Zaijie from the Centermadenew progress in the study of body color regulation of koi carp recently.

Prof. Dong Zaijie led the team to carry out microRNA and functional analysis and lncRNA and mRNA identification of different skin tissues of koi, and to explore the related genes and functions and pathways of key regulatory genes of koi body color regulation. Aiming at the body color differentiation and variation of koi, the characteristics of miRNA, lncRNA and mRNA of koi carp skins of different colors (black, red, white) were studied by RNA-seq technology, and found that 164 miRNA , 92 RNA and 722 mRNA were significantly differently expressed. Analysis of miRNA target genes and functions found that miR-200b, miR-206, etc. play a role by targeting key genes such as Mitf, Mc1r, and Foxd3 in pathways such as melanin synthesis, Wnt, and MAPK.70 significantly different lncRNAs predicted 107 cis-target genes, 79 lncRNAs were trans-related with 41,625 target genes, differentially expressed lncRNAs and mRNA functional annotations were enriched to pigment deposition, cell differentiation regulation, cell migration and other processes and Melanin synthesis, tyrosinase metabolism, retinol metabolism and other pathways.

Full-text URLs are https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-018-5189-5 and https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-019-5894- 8.