Ding Haisheng, Wang Yuanlang, Zhao Huiling, Wang Jinzi, Huang Dongwei
Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Product Safety, Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, Anhui Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hefei, 230031, China.
BMC Genomics. 2025 May 14;26(1):478. doi: 10.1186/s12864-025-11659-x.
The temperature of testes exposed to hyperthermic conditions can affect livestock reproductive performance. This study aimed to explore the difference in semen quality, testicular morphological structure, and gene expression profiles of testes of Angora rabbits in spring (no heat stress), summer (intense heat stress), and autumn (no heat stress) seasons.
Heat stress during summer significantly reduced semen quality and damaged testicular morphology and spermatogenesis, which recovered to normal levels in autumn, although semen quality recovery was notably slow. RNA-Seq analysis showed that the expression levels of 8703 genes changed significantly in summer, but their expression levels in autumn returned to those in spring, which was consistent with the testicular morphology analysis results in different seasons. Enrichment analysis revealed that the DEGs were primarily associated with spermatogenesis, sperm motility, spermatid development, cell death, regulation of apoptotic processes, and responses to external stimuli. The MAPK, Rap1, TNF, Ras, Apoptosis, and Wnt signaling pathways regulated reproduction under heat stress. In addition, minimal variations in testicular morphology and gene expression profiles were observed between autumn and spring. Gene expression pattern analysis showed that genes with high expression in summer mainly participated in the regulation of cell apoptosis, immunity, and response to heat stress, whereas genes with low expression in summer mainly participated in the regulation of spermatogenesis.
This study investigated the influence of different seasons on the reproductive performance of male Angora rabbits and provided initial insights into the molecular regulatory mechanisms underlying the testicular response to heat stress during summer.
暴露于高温环境下的睾丸温度会影响家畜的繁殖性能。本研究旨在探讨春季（无热应激）、夏季（强烈热应激）和秋季（无热应激）安哥拉兔精液质量、睾丸形态结构及睾丸基因表达谱的差异。
夏季的热应激显著降低了精液质量，损害了睾丸形态和精子发生，秋季虽精液质量恢复明显缓慢，但恢复到了正常水平。RNA测序分析表明，8703个基因的表达水平在夏季发生了显著变化，但其在秋季的表达水平恢复到了春季水平，这与不同季节睾丸形态分析结果一致。富集分析显示，差异表达基因主要与精子发生、精子活力、精子细胞发育、细胞死亡、凋亡过程调控及对外界刺激的反应有关。丝裂原活化蛋白激酶（MAPK）、Rap1、肿瘤坏死因子（TNF）、Ras、凋亡和Wnt信号通路在热应激下调节生殖。此外，秋季和春季之间睾丸形态和基因表达谱的变化最小。基因表达模式分析表明，夏季高表达的基因主要参与细胞凋亡、免疫及热应激反应的调控，而夏季低表达的基因主要参与精子发生的调控。
本研究调查了不同季节对雄性安哥拉兔繁殖性能的影响，并初步揭示了夏季睾丸对热应激反应的分子调控机制。
