AUTHOR=Yang Zhaoxin , Song Chengchuang , Jiang Rui , Huang Yongzhen , Lan Xianyong , Lei Chuzhao , Chen Hong TITLE=Micro-Ribonucleic Acid-216a Regulates Bovine Primary Muscle Cells Proliferation and Differentiation via Targeting SMAD Nuclear Interacting Protein-1 and Smad7 JOURNAL=Frontiers in Genetics VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2019 YEAR=2019 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genetics/articles/10.3389/fgene.2019.01112 DOI=10.3389/fgene.2019.01112 ISSN=1664-8021 ABSTRACT=MicroRNAs (miRNAs), belonging to a class of evolutionarily conserved small noncoding RNA of ~22 nucleotides, are widely involved in skeletal muscle growth and development by regulating gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. Herein, this study was to investigate the function and mechanism of miR-216a during bovine primary muscle cells proliferation and differentiation. During the proliferation and differentiation phases, the expression level of miR-216a both presented a downward trend. In cells proliferation phase, RT-qPCR, western blot, EdU, CCK8 and Flow cytometry experiments showed that overexpression of miR-216a inhibited the expression of proliferation-related genes and reduced the cell proliferation status, leading to cells G1 phase arrest. In cells differentiation stages, RT-qPCR and western blot experiments showed that overexpression of miR-216a suppressed myogenic maker genes mRNA and protein level. Bioinformatics analysis, dual‐luciferase report analysis and experimental verification demonstrated that SNIP1 and smad7 were the directly targets of miR-216a regulating bovine primary muscle cells proliferation and differentiation, respectively. Altogether, these findings found that miR-216a possessed a negative role for the proliferation and differentiation of bovine primary muscle cells via targeting SNIP1 and smad7.