Liu Yifan, Sun Yanyan, Li Yunlei, Bai Hao, Xu Songshan, Xu Hong, Ni Aixin, Yang Ning, Chen Jilan
Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics Breeding and Reproduction (Poultry), Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100193, China; China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China; Institute of Poultry Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Yangzhou, 225125, China.
Key Laboratory of Animal Genetics Breeding and Reproduction (Poultry), Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Animal Science, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, 100193, China.
Theriogenology. 2018 Dec;122:94-101. doi: 10.1016/j.theriogenology.2018.09.010. Epub 2018 Sep 13.
Sperm motility is one of the most important indicators for evaluating roosters' fecundity. However, molecular regulation underlying chickens' sperm motility remains to be understood. MicroRNA (miRNA) plays an epigenetic role in reproduction. In this study, we compared the testicular miRNAs of Beijing-you roosters with high (HS) and low (LS) sperm motility using Illumina sequencing to try to understand the associated molecular regulation. Length distribution analysis showed that the dominant size of small RNAs detected in the testes of the chicken samples was 24-28 nt. In total, 518 known and 106 novel miRNAs were identified. A total of 23 miRNAs were found differentially expressed (P < 0.05, |logfold change| ≥ 1) between the HS and LS groups, including 18 known and 5 novel miRNAs. Functional enrichment of the predicted target genes of the differentially expressed miRNAs indicated that these miRNAs were involved in the pathways of GnRH, MAPK and Wnt signaling. The miRNA-gene interaction network revealed two key candidate miRNA-gene pairs that might affect chicken sperm motility, viz, gga-miR-155/KCNA1 and gga-miR-7480-5p/AHI1. qPCR was then used to further validate their expressions. The results here provided a deep insight into the expressions of the miRNAs in the testes of chickens and suggested their roles in sperm motility regulation.
精子活力是评估公鸡繁殖力的最重要指标之一。然而，鸡精子活力的分子调控机制仍有待了解。微小RNA（miRNA）在生殖过程中发挥表观遗传作用。在本研究中，我们使用Illumina测序技术比较了精子活力高（HS）和低（LS）的北京油鸡睾丸中的miRNA，以试图了解相关的分子调控机制。长度分布分析表明，在鸡样本睾丸中检测到的小RNA的主要大小为24 - 28 nt。总共鉴定出518个已知miRNA和106个新miRNA。在HS组和LS组之间总共发现23个miRNA差异表达（P < 0.05，|log倍变化|≥1），包括18个已知miRNA和5个新miRNA。差异表达miRNA的预测靶基因的功能富集表明，这些miRNA参与了GnRH、MAPK和Wnt信号通路。miRNA - 基因相互作用网络揭示了两个可能影响鸡精子活力的关键候选miRNA - 基因对，即gga - miR - 155/KCNA1和gga - miR - 7480 - 5p/AHI1。然后使用qPCR进一步验证它们的表达。这里的结果深入了解了鸡睾丸中miRNA的表达，并表明了它们在精子活力调控中的作用。
