School of Life Science and Engineering, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, China.
Key Laboratory of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau Animal Genetic Resource Reservation and Utilization (Southwest Minzu University), Ministry of Education, Chengdu, China.
Reprod Domest Anim. 2021 Apr;56(4):555-576. doi: 10.1111/rda.13893. Epub 2021 Feb 14.
The epididymis is the site of post-testicular sperm maturation, which constitutes the acquisition of sperm motility and the ability to recognize and fertilize oocytes. The role of miRNA in male reproductive system, including the control of different steps leading to proper fertilization such as gametogenesis, sperm maturation and maintenance of male fertility where the deletion of Dicer in mouse germ cells led to infertility, has been demonstrated. The identification of miRNA expression in a region-specific manner will therefore provide valuable insight into the functional differences between the regions of the epididymis. In this study, we employed RNA-seq technology to explore the expression pattern of miRNAs and establish some miRNAs of significant interest with regard to epididymal sperm maturation in the CY epididymis. We identified a total of 431 DE known miRNAs; 119, 185 and 127 DE miRNAs were detected for caput versus corpus, corpus versus cauda and caput versus cauda region pairs, respectively. Our results demonstrate region-specific miRNA expression in the CY epididymis. The GO and KEGG enrichment for the predicted target genes indicated the functional values of miRNAs. Furthermore, we observed that the expression of miR-200a was downregulated in the caput, compared with cauda. Since the family of miR-200 has previously been suggested to contribute to the distinct physiological function of sperm maturation in epididymis of adult rat, we speculate that the downregulation of miR-200a in CY caput epididymis may play an important role of sperm maturation in the epididymis of CY. Therefore, our findings may not only increase our understanding of the molecular mechanisms regulated by the miRNA functions in region-specific miRNA expression in the CY epididymis, it could provide a valuable information to understand the mechanism of male infertility of CY.
附睾是精子后熟的部位，这构成了精子运动能力和识别和受精卵母细胞的能力的获得。miRNA 在男性生殖系统中的作用，包括控制不同的步骤，导致适当的受精，如配子发生、精子成熟和维持男性生育力，其中 Dicer 在小鼠生殖细胞中的缺失导致不育，已经得到了证明。miRNA 表达的鉴定以区域特异性的方式将为了解附睾不同区域之间的功能差异提供有价值的见解。在这项研究中，我们采用 RNA-seq 技术来探索 miRNA 的表达模式，并在 CY 附睾中建立了一些与精子成熟相关的有意义的 miRNA。我们总共鉴定了 431 个 DE 已知 miRNA；在头部与体部、体部与尾部以及头部与尾部区域对之间，分别检测到 119、185 和 127 个 DE miRNA。我们的结果表明，CY 附睾中存在区域特异性的 miRNA 表达。预测靶基因的 GO 和 KEGG 富集表明了 miRNA 的功能价值。此外，我们观察到 miR-200a 在头部的表达下调，与尾部相比。由于 miR-200 家族先前被认为有助于成年大鼠附睾中精子成熟的不同生理功能，我们推测 CY 头部附睾中 miR-200a 的下调可能在 CY 附睾的精子成熟中发挥重要作用。因此，我们的发现不仅可能增加我们对 miRNA 功能调节的分子机制的理解，还可能为理解 CY 男性不育的机制提供有价值的信息。
