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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0PLOS One

First insights into the miRNA landscape of Tursiops truncatus milk reveal shared dominant microRNA families with terrestrial mammals

  • Filippo Cendron1
  • Carlo Boselli2
  • Flavio Maggi3
  • Annalisa Duri4
  • Valentina D’Onofrio5
  • Massimo De Marchi
  • Mauro Penasa
  • Umberto Rosani
5 affiliations
  1. 1Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural Resources, Animals and Environment, University of Padova, Legnaro, Italy
  2. 2Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Lazio e della Toscana “M. Aleandri” - National Reference Centre for Ovine and Caprine Milk and Dairy Products Quality (C.Re.L.D.O.C.), Rome, Italy
  3. 3Azienda Sanitaria Locale, Roma 4, Distretto 4, Rignano Flaminio, Rome, Italy
  4. 4General practitioner freelance AniCura - Clinica Veterinaria Borghesiana, Rome, Italy
  5. 5Department of Biology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
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Abstract

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that play crucial regulatory roles in gene expression in metazoans. While the miRNA repertoire and relative abundances have been extensively studied in terrestrial mammals, no information was available for the milk of marine mammals. Here, we present the first characterization of the miRNA genomic landscape and abundance in milk in the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). Using a sequence-based comparative approach, we identified 186 conserved miRNA families comprising 354 high-confidence precursors in the dolphin genome. Comparative analysis across 52 cetacean genomes revealed a small number of lineage-specific loss events, such as mir-187 in Delphinidae, and the absence of nine miRNA families in all cetaceans. Small RNA sequencing from pooled milk samples confirmed the detectable abundance of 119 miRNAs, with a landscape dominated by mir-148, let-7, mir-8, and mir-21, collectively accounting for over 70% of total miRNA reads. These dominant families include miRNAs frequently reported in the milk of terrestrial mammals, suggesting qualitative similarity in the major milk miRNA repertoire between dolphin and terrestrial mammals. These findings should be interpreted as a first sequencing-supported exploratory characterization of dolphin milk miRNAs.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{cendron2026first,
  title = {{First insights into the miRNA landscape of Tursiops truncatus milk reveal shared dominant microRNA families with terrestrial mammals}},
  author = {Filippo Cendron and Carlo Boselli and Flavio Maggi and Annalisa Duri and Valentina D’Onofrio and Massimo De Marchi and Mauro Penasa and Umberto Rosani},
  journal = {PLOS One},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.1371/journal.pone.0356241},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0356241},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - First insights into the miRNA landscape of Tursiops truncatus milk reveal shared dominant microRNA families with terrestrial mammals
AU  - Filippo Cendron
AU  - Carlo Boselli
AU  - Flavio Maggi
AU  - Annalisa Duri
AU  - Valentina D’Onofrio
AU  - Massimo De Marchi
AU  - Mauro Penasa
AU  - Umberto Rosani
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/09
JO  - PLOS One
DO  - 10.1371/journal.pone.0356241
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0356241
AB  - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that play crucial regulatory roles in gene expression in metazoans. While the miRNA repertoire and relative abundances have been extensively studied in terrestrial mammals, no information was available for the milk of marine mammals. Here, we present the first characterization of the miRNA genomic landscape and abundance in milk in the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). Using a sequence-based comparative approach, we identified 186 conserved miRNA families comprising 354 high-confidence precursors in the dolphin genome. Comparative analysis across 52 cetacean genomes revealed a small number of lineage-specific loss events, such as mir-187 in Delphinidae, and the absence of nine miRNA families in all cetaceans. Small RNA sequencing from pooled milk samples confirmed the detectable abundance of 119 miRNAs, with a landscape dominated by mir-148, let-7, mir-8, and mir-21, collectively accounting for over 70% of total miRNA reads. These dominant families include miRNAs frequently reported in the milk of terrestrial mammals, suggesting qualitative similarity in the major milk miRNA repertoire between dolphin and terrestrial mammals. These findings should be interpreted as a first sequencing-supported exploratory characterization of dolphin milk miRNAs.
SN  - 1932-6203
ER  -