Department of Animal Veterinary Science, College of Animal Science and Technology, Anhui Agricultural University, 130 Changjiang West Road, Hefei, Anhui 230036, China; Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Local Livestock and Poultry, Genetical Resource Conservation and Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, Anhui 230036, China.
Department of Animal Veterinary Science, College of Animal Science and Technology, Anhui Agricultural University, 130 Changjiang West Road, Hefei, Anhui 230036, China.
J Proteomics. 2022 Jan 16;251:104411. doi: 10.1016/j.jprot.2021.104411. Epub 2021 Oct 30.
The functions of proteins at the onset of puberty in goats remain largely unexplored. To identify the proteins regulating puberty in goats, we analysed protein abundance and pathways in the hypothalamus of female goats. We applied tandem mass tag (TMT) labelling, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), and parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) to examine hypothalamus of pubertal (cases; n = 3) and prepubertal (controls; n = 3) goats. We identified 5119 proteins, including 69 differentially abundant proteins (DAPs), of which 35 were upregulated and 34 were downregulated. Fourteen DAPs were randomly selected to verify these results using PRM, and the results were consistent with the TMT quantitative results. DAPs were enriched in MAPK signalling pathway, Ras signalling pathway, Autophagy-animal, Endocytosis, and PI3K/Akt/mTOR signalling pathway categories. These pathways are related to embryogenesis, cell proliferation, cell differentiation, and promoting the release of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) in the hypothalamus. In particular, PDGFRβ and MAP3K7 occupied important locations in the protein-protein interaction network. The results demonstrate that DAPs and their related signalling pathways are crucial in regulating puberty in goats. However, further research is needed to explore the functions of DAPs and their pathways to provide new insights into the mechanism of puberty onset. SIGNIFICANCE: In domestic animals, reaching the age of puberty is an event that contributes significantly to lifetime reproductive potential. And the hypothalamus functions directly in the complex systemic changes that control puberty. Our study was the first TMT proteomics analysis on hypothalamus tissues of pubertal goats, which revealed the changes of protein and pathways that are related to the onset of puberty. We identified 69 DAPs, which were enriched in the MAPK signaling pathway, the Ras signaling pathway, and the IGF-1/PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway, suggesting that these processes were probably involved in the onset of puberty.
在青春期开始时，蛋白质的功能在山羊中仍在很大程度上未被探索。为了鉴定调节山羊青春期的蛋白质，我们分析了雌性山羊下丘脑的蛋白质丰度和途径。我们应用串联质量标签（TMT）标记、液相色谱-串联质谱（LC-MS/MS）和并行反应监测（PRM）来检查青春期（病例；n=3）和青春期前（对照；n=3）山羊的下丘脑。我们鉴定了 5119 种蛋白质，包括 69 种差异丰富的蛋白质（DAP），其中 35 种上调，34 种下调。随机选择了 14 种 DAP 用 PRM 来验证这些结果，结果与 TMT 定量结果一致。DAPs 在 MAPK 信号通路、Ras 信号通路、动物自噬、内吞作用和 PI3K/Akt/mTOR 信号通路等类别中富集。这些途径与胚胎发生、细胞增殖、细胞分化以及促进下丘脑促性腺激素释放激素（GnRH）的释放有关。特别是 PDGFRβ和 MAP3K7 在蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用网络中占据重要位置。结果表明，DAPs 及其相关信号通路在调节山羊青春期中起着至关重要的作用。然而，需要进一步研究以探索 DAPs 及其途径的功能，为青春期开始的机制提供新的见解。意义：在家畜中，达到青春期的年龄是对终生生殖潜力有重大贡献的事件。而下丘脑直接作用于控制青春期的复杂全身变化。我们的研究是对青春期山羊下丘脑组织进行的首次 TMT 蛋白质组学分析，揭示了与青春期开始相关的蛋白质和途径的变化。我们鉴定了 69 种 DAP，它们在 MAPK 信号通路、Ras 信号通路和 IGF-1/PI3K/Akt/mTOR 通路中富集，表明这些过程可能参与了青春期的开始。
