MMP2 regulates proliferation and differentiation in chicken primary myoblasts, and RNA-seq screens for key genes

The growth and development of chicken skeletal muscle directly affects chicken meat production, which is very important for broiler industry. Matrix metallopeptidase 2 (MMP2) exists in skeletal muscle. However, the underlying regulating of MMP2 remain unknown. In this study, MMP2 promoted cell proliferation and inhibited cell differentiation after overexpression in chicken primary myoblasts cells (CPMs). When MMP2 was knocked down, it inhibited CPMs proliferation and promoted cell differentiation. Subsequently, RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and bioinformatics analysis were performed on overexpressing MMP2. We identified 265 up-regulated genes and 229 down-regulated genes. Based on the fragments per kilobase million (FPKM) ≥ 10, the retained data were analyzed by Pearson correlation analysis. MMP2 was positively correlated with carboxypeptidase M (CPM), MSTRG.14120 and aldehyde dehydrogenase 1 family member A3 (ALDH1A3), and the correlation coefficient was the highest (0.998). MMP2 was negatively correlated with hes family bHLH transcription factor 1 (HES1), and the correlation coefficient was the highest (0.998). Go term was enriched in cellular components or biogenesis, cellular processes, and cell aggregation. KEGG was significantly enriched to the cancer pathway. qRT-PCR analysis validated the transcriptomic results of RNA-seq. In conclusion, these results provided new insights into the molecular mechanisms by which MMP2 affected the proliferation and differentiation of chicken myoblasts.