Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Local Livestock and Poultry, Genetical Resource Conservation and Breeding, College of Animal Science and Technology, Anhui Agricultural University, No.130 West Changjiang Road, Hefei, 230036, China.
National Animal Husbandry Service, Beijing, 100125, China.
BMC Genomics. 2024 May 7;25(1):447. doi: 10.1186/s12864-024-10343-w.
The health and size of the testes are crucial for boar fertility. Testicular development is tightly regulated by epigenetics. N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification is a prevalent internal modification on mRNA and plays an important role in development. The mRNA m6A methylation in boar testicular development still needs to be investigated.
Using the MeRIP-seq technique, we identify and profile m6A modification in boar testes between piglets and adults. The results showed 7783 distinct m6A peaks in piglets and 6590 distinct m6A peaks in adults, with 2,471 peaks shared between the two groups. Enrichment of GO and KEGG analysis reveal dynamic m6A methylation in various biological processes and signalling pathways. Meanwhile, we conjointly analyzed differentially methylated and expressed genes in boar testes before and after sexual maturity, and reproductive related genes (TLE4, TSSK3, TSSK6, C11ORF94, PATZ1, PHLPP1 and PAQR7) were identified. Functional enrichment analysis showed that differential genes are associated with important biological functions, including regulation of growth and development, regulation of metabolic processes and protein catabolic processes.
The results demonstrate that m6A methylation, differential expression and the related signalling pathways are crucial for boar testicular development. These results suggest a role for m6A modification in boar testicular development and provided a resource for future studies on m6A function in boar testicular development.
睾丸的健康和大小对猪的繁殖力至关重要。睾丸发育受表观遗传学的严格调控。N6-甲基腺苷（m6A）修饰是 mRNA 上普遍存在的内部修饰，在发育过程中发挥着重要作用。猪睾丸发育过程中的 mRNA m6A 甲基化仍需研究。
我们使用 MeRIP-seq 技术，鉴定并分析了仔猪和成年猪睾丸中 m6A 修饰。结果显示，仔猪中有 7783 个独特的 m6A 峰，成年猪中有 6590 个独特的 m6A 峰，两组共有 2471 个峰。GO 和 KEGG 富集分析显示，m6A 甲基化在各种生物过程和信号通路中具有动态性。同时，我们共同分析了性成熟前后猪睾丸中差异甲基化和表达的基因，鉴定了与生殖相关的基因（TLE4、TSSK3、TSSK6、C11ORF94、PATZ1、PHLPP1 和 PAQR7）。功能富集分析表明，差异基因与重要的生物学功能有关，包括生长和发育的调控、代谢过程和蛋白质分解代谢过程的调控。
研究结果表明，m6A 甲基化、差异表达及其相关信号通路对猪睾丸发育至关重要。这些结果表明 m6A 修饰在猪睾丸发育中的作用，并为 m6A 在猪睾丸发育中的功能研究提供了资源。
