Long Noncoding RNA Expression Profiling During the Neuronal Differentiation of Glial Precursor Cells from Rat Dorsal Root Ganglia

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play important roles in the process of cell fate determination. However, their function and expression profiles have not yet been systematically investigated during the transdifferentiation of glial precursor cells derived from dorsal root ganglia (DRG) in the peripheral nervous system. Our results demonstrated significant differences in gene architecture and expression among the three transcript types (lncRNA, mRNA, and TUCP). Distinct differences in transcript length, exon number, and ORF length were identified between lncRNAs and mRNAs after comparative analysis of their structure and sequence conservation. We found that the upregulated lncRNAs outnumbered the downregulated lncRNAs in glial precursor cells cultured with proBDNF antiserum compared with the levels in glial precursor cells cultured without proBDNF antiserum. By a series of GO and KEGG analyses, we found that the effects of some lncRNAs on their target genes in cis were related to nerve growth factor-induced cell cycle, cell phenotype change, and neuronal differentiation. The qRT-PCR verification results of lncRNAs ENSRNOT00000091991, ENSRNOT00000087717, and LNC000429 were mostly consistent with the sequencing results. The candidate lncRNAs may be associated with the neuronal transdifferentiation of glial precursor cells. Our study provides the first evidence for a remarkably diverse pattern of lncRNA expression during neuronal differentiation of glial precursor cells from rat DRG and also provides a resource for lncRNA studies in the field of cell differentiation.