Alterations of mRNAs and lncRNAs profiles associated with the extracellular Matrix matrix and spermatogenesis in goats ABSTRACTObjective: Spermatozoa is are produced in within the seminiferous tubules after sexual maturity. The expression levels of mRNAs and lncRNAs in testicular tissues were are different at different each stages of testicular development. The expression of mRNA and lncRNA wasand are closely related to the formation of the extracellular matrix and spermatogenesis. Therefore, it is necessarwe set outy to study the expression of lncRNAs and mRNAs in during the different developmental stages of the goat testis development.Methods: We constructed 12 RNA libraries from using testiculartestis tissues of from goats aged 3, 6, and 12 months, and studied the functions of mRNAs and lncRNAs by using the Gene Ontogeny (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genesome and Genomics Genomes (KEGG) databases. The rRelationships between differentially expressed genes (DEGs) was were analyzed by lncRNA-mRNA co-expression network and protein-protein interaction network (PPI). Finally, the protein expression levels of Matrix matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP2), insulin-like growth factor 2 (IGF2), and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 6 (IGFBP6) were detected by western wWestern blotting.
Results:We found 23, 8, and 135 differentially expressed lncRNAss and 161, 12, and 665 differentially expressed mRNAss that were identified between 3 VS vs. 6, 6 VS vs. 12, and 3 VS vs. 12 months, respectively. GO, KEGG, and PPI analysis analyses showed that the differential genes were mainly related to the extracellular Matrixmatrix. Moreover, MMP2 was a hub gene and co-expressed with the lncRNAs TCONS-0002139 and TCONS-00093342.