Bta-miR-34b regulates milk fat biosynthesis by targeting mRNA decapping enzyme 1A (DCP1A) in cultured bovine mammary epithelial cells1.

Milk fat is a main nutritional component of milk, and it has become one of the important traits of dairy cow breeding. Recently, there is increasing evidence that microRNAs (miRNA) play significant roles in the process of milk fat synthesis in the mammary gland. Primary bovine mammary epithelial cells (BMEC) were harvested from midlactation cows and cultured in DMEM/F-12 medium with 10% fetal bovine serum, 100 units/mL penicillin, 100 µg/mL streptomycin, 5 µg/mL bovine insulin, 1 µg/mL hydrocortisone, and 2 µg/mL bovine prolactin. We found that miR-34b mimic transfection in BMEC reduced the content of intracellular triacylglycerol (TAG) and lipid droplet accumulation via triacylglycerol assay and Oil Red O staining; meanwhile, overexpression of miR-34b inhibited mRNA expression of lipid metabolism-related genes such as peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ), fatty acid synthase (FASN), fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4), and CCAAT enhancer binding protein alpha (C/EBPα). Whereas miR-34b inhibitor resulted in completely opposite results. Furthermore, q-PCR and western blot analysis revealed the mRNA and protein expression levels of DCP1A were downregulated in miR-34b mimic transfection group and upregulated in miR-34b inhibitor group. Moreover, luciferase reporter assays verified that DCP1A was the direct target of miR-34b and DCP1A gene silencing in BMEC-inhibited TAG accumulation and suppressed lipid droplet formation. In conclusion, these findings revealed a novel miR-34b-DCP1A axis that has a significant role in regulating milk fat synthesis and suggested that miR-34b may be used to improve the beneficial ingredients in milk.