Yak FOXO1 and FOXO3 SNPs and association with production traits, and their promotes cells apoptosis via RNAi

FOXOs transcription factors not only play key roles in glucose metabolism, muscle atrophy and energy homeostasis but also play crucial transcriptional regulatory roles in the cell's metabolism, orchestrating programs of gene expression that regulate cell apoptosis, cell-cycle progression and oxidative stress resistance. However, the specific function of FOXOs promoting fibroblasts proliferation and apoptosis are still unknown. Thus, we used the High-Resolution Melting (HRM) and RNA interference methods to detect SNPs and function. We found one SNP in the exon of FOXO1, three SNPs were identified in the exon of FOXO3, and three SNPs and production traits were significantly different. The siRNA sequence of yak FOXO1 and FOXO3 were transfected into the yak fibroblasts, and effects were detected by a series of assays to reveal the function in yak fibroblasts. The results demonstrated that down-regulated expression of FOXO1 and FOXO3 resulted in up-regulated the expression of BAX, Caspase9 and Caspase3, and down-regulated the expression level of anti-apoptotic gene of BCL2. The apoptotic situation was consistent with results of the flow cytometry and Tunel test cell cycle and cell vitality results revealed that knockdown FOXO1 and FOXO3 resulted in increased P27 expression level and decreased CyclinD1. Meanwhile, cell vitality was also decreased. These results demonstrated that FOXO1 and FOXO3 are two novel regulatory factors to suppress cells proliferation and promote cells apoptosis. Furthermore, these results provide evidence that FOXO1 and FOXO3 play a functional role in cell apoptosis.