Hou Biwei, Mao Min, Dong Shucan, Deng Ming, Sun Baoli, Guo Yongqing, Li Yaokun, Liu Dewu, Liu Guangbin
College of Animal Science, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China.
Front Vet Sci. 2023 Mar 28;10:1145594. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2023.1145594. eCollection 2023.
As an important organ that coordinates the neuroendocrine system, the hypothalamus synthesizes and secretes reproductive hormones that act on the goat organism, thereby precisely regulating follicular development and reproductive processes in goats. However, it is still elusive to explore the mechanism of hypothalamic effects on goat fertility alone. Therefore, RNA-seq was used to analyze the gene expression in hypothalamic tissues of goats in high fertility group (HFG: litter size per litter ≥2) and low fertility group (LFG: litter size per litter = 1), and identified the differential lncRNAs and mRNAs and their associated pathways related to their fertility. The results showed that a total of 23 lncRNAs and 57 mRNAs were differentially expressed in the hypothalamic tissue of high and low fertility goats. GO terms and KEGG functional annotation suggest that DE lncRNAs and DE mRNAs were significantly enriched in hormone-related pathways regulating ovarian development, hormone synthesis and secretion, regulation of reproductive processes, Estrogen signaling pathway, Oxytocin signaling pathway and GnRH signaling pathway. And we constructed a co-expression network of lncRNAs and target genes, and identified reproduction-related genes such as NMUR2, FEZF1, and WT1. The sequencing results of the hypothalamic transcriptome have broadened our understanding of lncRNA and mRNA in goat hypothalamic tissue and provided some new insights into the molecular mechanisms of follicle development and regulation of its fertility in goats.
下丘脑作为协调神经内分泌系统的重要器官，合成并分泌作用于山羊机体的生殖激素，从而精确调节山羊的卵泡发育和生殖过程。然而，单独探究下丘脑对山羊繁殖力影响的机制仍不清楚。因此，本研究利用RNA测序技术分析了高繁殖力组（HFG：每胎产仔数≥2）和低繁殖力组（LFG：每胎产仔数=1）山羊下丘脑组织中的基因表达，鉴定了与繁殖力相关的差异lncRNA和mRNA及其相关通路。结果显示，高、低繁殖力山羊下丘脑组织中共有23个lncRNA和57个mRNA差异表达。GO注释和KEGG功能注释表明，差异lncRNA和差异mRNA显著富集于调节卵巢发育、激素合成与分泌、生殖过程调控、雌激素信号通路、催产素信号通路和GnRH信号通路等激素相关通路。并且构建了lncRNA与靶基因的共表达网络，鉴定出了NMUR2、FEZF1和WT1等繁殖相关基因。下丘脑转录组测序结果拓宽了我们对山羊下丘脑组织中lncRNA和mRNA的认识，并为山羊卵泡发育及其繁殖力调控的分子机制提供了一些新的见解。
