Gene regulation could be attributed to TCF3 and other key transcription factors in the muscle of pubertal heifers

Puberty is a whole‐body event, driven by the hypothalamic integration of peripheral signals such as leptin or IGF‐1. In the process of puberty, reproductive development is simultaneous to growth, including muscle growth. To enhance our understanding of muscle function related to puberty, we performed transcriptome analyses of muscle samples from six pre‐ and six post‐pubertal Brahman heifers (Bos indicus). Our aims were to perform differential expression analyses and co‐expression analyses to derive a regulatory gene network associate with puberty. As a result, we identified 431 differentially expressed (DEx) transcripts (genes and non‐coding RNAs) when comparing pre‐ to post‐pubertal average gene expression. The DEx transcripts were compared with all expressed transcripts in our samples (over 14,000 transcripts) for functional enrichment analyses. The DEx transcripts were associated with “extracellular region,” “inflammatory response” and “hormone activity” (adjusted p < .05). Inflammatory response for muscle regeneration is a necessary aspect of muscle growth, which is accelerated during puberty. The term “hormone activity” may signal genes that respond to progesterone signalling in the muscle, as the presence of this hormone is an important difference between pre‐ and post‐pubertal heifers in our experimental design. The DEx transcript with the highest average expression difference was a mitochondrial gene, ENSBTAG00000043574 that might be another important link between energy metabolism and puberty. In the derived co‐expression gene network, we identified six hub genes: CDC5L, MYC, TCF3, RUNX2, ATF2 and CREB1. In the same network, 48 key regulators of DEx transcripts were identified, using a regulatory impact factor metric. The hub gene TCF3 was also a key regulator. The majority of the key regulators (22 genes) are members of the zinc finger family, which has been implicated in bovine puberty in other tissues. In conclusion, we described how puberty may affect muscle gene expression in cattle.