Department of Toxicology, Shandong Academy of Occupational Health and Occupational Medicine, Ji'nan, Shandong, China.
Department of Society Science, Shandong Medical College, Ji'nan, Shandong, China.
Environ Toxicol. 2019 Apr;34(4):505-512. doi: 10.1002/tox.22704. Epub 2019 Jan 24.
Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) plays a critical role in male germline development. Atrazine (AZ) as an environmental endocrine disrupting chemical (EDCs) can induce male reproductive toxicity in amphibians. Our previous studies demonstrated that AZ can alter gene and circular RNA (circRNA) expression of damaged testes in Xenopus laevis (X. laevis). We furthered to investigate the lncRNA expression profiling in the testis of X. laevis. Over 3559 lncRNAs were detected by lncRNA sequencing. AZ induced 40 upregulated and 46 downregulated differentially expressed lncRNAs. KEGG analysis showed that AZ-affected lncRNAs mainly involve in 19 pathways among which 12 pathways are found in circRNA analysis. This study for the first time demonstrated that AZ can alter lncRNAs which may play a role in testicular degeneration through regulating expressions of functional genes in X. laevis. Our data may provide more insights on the mechanism about male reproductive toxicity of EDCs.
长链非编码 RNA（lncRNA）在精子发生发育中起着关键作用。莠去津（AZ）作为一种环境内分泌干扰化学物质（EDCs），可在两栖动物中引起雄性生殖毒性。我们之前的研究表明，AZ 可以改变非洲爪蟾（X. laevis）受损睾丸中的基因和环状 RNA（circRNA）表达。我们进一步研究了 X. laevis 睾丸中的 lncRNA 表达谱。通过 lncRNA 测序检测到超过 3559 个 lncRNA。AZ 诱导了 40 个上调和 46 个下调的差异表达 lncRNA。KEGG 分析表明，AZ 影响的 lncRNA 主要涉及 19 条途径，其中在 circRNA 分析中发现了 12 条途径。这项研究首次表明，AZ 可以改变 lncRNA，通过调节 X. laevis 中功能性基因的表达，可能在睾丸退化中发挥作用。我们的数据可能为 EDCs 的雄性生殖毒性机制提供更多的见解。
