Identification of Key Genes Related to Postnatal Testicular Development Based on Transcriptomic Data of Testis in Hu Sheep

Abstract

The selection of testis size can improve the reproductive capacity of livestock used for artificial insemination and has been considered as an important strategy for accelerating the breeding process. Although much work has been done to investigate the mechanisms of testis development in various species, there is little information available in regard to the differences in transcriptomic profiling of sheep testes at different developmental stages. In this work, we aimed to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) by RNA-Seq in sheep during different growth stages, including 0 month old (infant, M0), 3 months old (puberty, M3), 6 months old (sexual maturity, M6) and 12 months old (body maturity, M12). A total of 4,606 (2,381 up and 2,225 down), 7,500 (4,368 up and 3,132 down), 15 (8 up and seven down) DEGs were identified in M3_vs_M0, M6_vs_M3, and M12_vs_M6 comparison, respectively. Of which, a number of genes were continuously up-regulated and down-regulated with testicular development, including ODF3, ZPBP1, PKDREJ, MYBL1, PDGFA, IGF1, LH, INSL3, VIM, AMH, INHBA, COL1A1, COL1A2, and INHA. GO analysis illustrated that DEGs were mainly involved in testis development and spermatogenesis. KEGG analysis identified several important pathways and verified several reproduction-associated DEGs such as COL1A1, COL1A2, PDGFA, and IGF1. In addition, two gene modules highly associated with testis development and core genes with testis size were identified using weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA), including hub genes positively associated with testis size such as RANBP9, DNAH17, SPATA4, CIB4 and SPEM1, and those negatively associated with testis size such as CD81, CSK, PDGFA, VIM, and INHBA. This study comprehensively identified key genes related to sheep testicular development, which may provide potential insights for understanding male fertility and better guide in animal breeding.

Investigation of the mechanisms leading to human sperm DNA damage based on transcriptome analysis by RNA-seq techniques

“…Zhang et al (2019) found that the expression of lncRNA was associated with sperm motility. RNA-seq technology has been successfully applied to the investigations on fertilization and the relationship between the transcriptome of ejaculated sperm and sperm quality or fertility (Xu et al, 2021;Gòdia et al, 2020b), and it was found that transcription in sperm was associated with molecular processes such as chemoattractant-activated signal transduction and ion transport and cellular components of membranes and vesicles, and that some mRNAs and microRNAs might be critical for the early development of embryos. The abundant pools of coding and noncoding RNAs in stallion sperm were not the random remnants of spermatogenesis in testis, but were selectively retained and functional consistent RNA collections (Das et al, 2013).…”

“Comparative Analysis of Ovarian Transcriptome Changes Across Gestational Stages in Kari Sheep”

“…The downregulated genes included in these terms are EEA1, CNOT4, FGD4, MBNL1, ZRANB2, REV3L, XIAP, ATP13A3, RPAP2, FOXP2, ADAMTS6 , these genes are associated with mRNA surveillance pathway [18]. A parallel study by [19] described a genome-wide comparison among ovine transcriptome derived from the M0, M3, M6, and M12 sheep testes by RNA-Sequencing. A number of key genes associated with reproduction were identified, which could be defined as candidate genes controlling testis development and spermatogenesis.…”