On April 30th, a research paper titled “Zfp217 mediates m6A mRNA methylation to orchestrate transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulation to promote adipogenic differentiation” was published online on international journal Nucleic Acids Research. The Joint First Authors are Song Tongxing and Yang Yang, doctoral students from Department of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science, College of Animal Science and Technology of HZAU. Peng Jian and Jiang Siwen, professors of HZAU, are the co-corresponding authors of the paper.

Adipose tissue is animal’s main organ for energy storage, and is also an important endocrine organ. It not only influences the production efficiency and product quality of livestock and poultry, but also greatly contributes to obesity and metabolic disease of human. Therefore, elucidating the regulatory mechanism of adipogenesis has been a research focus in the field of agriculture and health. The research identified the classical transcription factor Zfp217controling adipogenesis, and elucidated its transcriptional regulatory mechanism. More importantly, the research also clarified the mechanism in which Zfp217 interacts with YTHDF2 to maintain m6A demethylation activity of FTO, thereby facilitating adipogenesis. This paper is the first report on the molecular mechanism of epigenetic regulation of RNA in adipogenesis. It is a new understanding of the regulatory mechanism of adipogenesis, which is of great significance for expanding relevant research fields.

It is reported that the research group of Professor Peng Jian and Professor Jiang Siwen broke through in solving the technical difficulties of the regulatory mechanism of adipogenesis in their years’ research, and took the lead in establishing the cell tool for the research of pig’s adipogenesis -- pig DFAT cell, providing important technical support for the research of pig’s adipogenesis. A series of new and key transcription factors were identified and their regulatory mechanisms were elucidated. Moreover, the research group has also revealed the epigenetic mechanisms of SIRT1 and miR377 that regulate adipogenesis, and explored the regulatory mechanisms which improve adipogenesis.

Source：http://news.hzau.edu.cn/2019/0514/54198.shtml

Translated by: Huang Wenyin

Supervised by: Wang Xiaoyan