GenPhySE, Université de Toulouse, INRAE, ENVT, 31326 Castanet Tolosan, France.
Institut National de Recherche en Santé Digestive (IRSD), Université de Toulouse, INSERM, INRAE, ENVT, Université Paul Sabatier (UPS), 31024 Toulouse, France.
Genes (Basel). 2021 Apr 9;12(4):551. doi: 10.3390/genes12040551.
Steroid metabolism is a fundamental process in the porcine testis to provide testosterone but also estrogens and androstenone, which are essential for the physiology of the boar. This study concerns boars at an early stage of puberty. Using a RT-qPCR approach, we showed that the transcriptional activities of several genes providing key enzymes involved in this metabolism (such as ) are correlated. Surprisingly, , a key gene for testosterone production, was absent from this group. An additional weighted gene co-expression network analysis was performed on two large sets of mRNA-seq to identify co-expression modules. Of these modules, two containing either or were further analyzed. This comprehensive correlation meta-analysis identified a group of 85 genes with as hub gene, but did not allow the characterization of a robust correlation network around . As the CYP11A1-group includes most of the genes involved in steroid synthesis pathways (including encoding for the LH receptor), it may control the synthesis of most of the testicular steroids. The independent expression of probably allows part of the production of testosterone to escape this control. This CYP11A1-group contained also and genes encoding a peptide hormone and an angiotensin peptide precursor, respectively.
类固醇代谢是猪睾丸中的一个基本过程，提供睾酮，也提供雌激素和雄烯酮，这对公猪的生理机能至关重要。本研究涉及青春期早期的公猪。通过 RT-qPCR 方法，我们表明提供参与这种代谢的关键酶的几个基因的转录活性（如）是相关的。令人惊讶的是， ，一个用于产生睾酮的关键基因，从这个群体中缺失了。对两个大型 mRNA-seq 数据集进行了附加的加权基因共表达网络分析，以识别共表达模块。在这些模块中，包含 或 的两个模块进一步进行了分析。这种综合的相关性荟萃分析确定了一组 85 个基因，其中 作为枢纽基因，但不能确定围绕 建立一个稳健的相关网络。由于 CYP11A1 组包含大多数参与类固醇合成途径的基因（包括编码 LH 受体的 ），它可能控制大多数睾丸类固醇的合成。 的独立表达可能允许部分睾酮的产生逃脱这种控制。该 CYP11A1 组还包含编码肽激素和血管紧张肽前体的 和 基因。
