Fig. 4

Identification of human-specific miR-137 targets in the MIR137^–/– miniature pigs. A The upregulated DEGs in the MIR137^–/– miniature pigs are significantly enriched with human miR-137 target genes (1314 genes obtained from TargetScanHuman 8.0). Among these, eight genes are associated with ASD, and seven genes are associated with ID. B qPCR verification of selected human miR-137 target genes in the brain of MIR137^–/– miniature pig. C miR-137-mediated regulation in ASD risk genes interactome. A predicted ASD-gene network exploring brain-specific interactions between ASD risk genes was generated, including the selected upregulated miR-137 target genes in the brain of MIR137^–/– miniature pig (dots marked with bold lines). Upregulated miR-137 predicted targets might potentially influence an adjacent ASD candidate gene’s expression, such as CAMK2B, GRIN1 and CACNA1G were previously reported as associated with ASD and ID. D The 843 genes identified in the study were found to be targeted by both human and mouse miR-137. E The 21 DEGs that were upregulated in the MIR137^–/– miniature pig were human-specific miR-137 target genes