Abstract
Landes geese and Sichuan White geese are two important genetic materials for commercial goose breeding. However, the differences in the male reproductive capacity between these two breeds and the potential molecular mechanisms and associated key genes have not been reported to date. The present study compared the testicular histology and mRNA–long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) expression patterns to reveal the differences in male reproductive performance between Sichuan White geese and Landes geese, as well as to explore the underlying molecular mechanisms. Histological results showed that the testicular organ index, semen volume, and long diameter of seminiferous tubules of Landes geese were significantly larger than those of Sichuan White geese. Analyses of mRNA-lncRNA expression profile showed that compared with Sichuan White geese, a total of 462 differentially expressed mRNAs (DEGs) (173 up-regulated and 289 down-regulated) and 329 differentially expressed lncRNAs (DE lncRNAs) (280 up-regulated, 49 down-regulated) were identified in Landes geese. Among these DEGs, there were 10 spermatogenesis-related and highly expressed (FPKM > 10) DEGs. Except for SEPP1, all of these DEGs were significantly up-regulated in the testes of Landes geese. Functional enrichment analysis indicated that the pathway related to metabolism progress and phosphoinositol signal is vitally responsible for differences in male reproductive performance between Landes geese and Sichuan White geese. These results show that compared with Sichuan White geese, the spermatogenesis in the testis of Landes geese was more active, which may be mainly related to the inositol phosphate signal. These data contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying different male reproductive performances between Landes geese and Sichuan White geese. This knowledge might eventually provide a theoretical basis for improving male reproductive performance in geese.
Highlights
Geese are the economically most important species of poultry around the world
Histological results showed that the long diameter of seminiferous tubules of Landes geese (LG) significantly exceeded that of Sichuan White geese (SWG) (P = 0.000194) (Figure 1B)
Studies on male boars have demonstrated that testicular histological parameters have stronger heritability than semen characteristics (Chang et al, 2017); domestic animals that differ in male reproductive capacity usually show differences in their testicular structures
Summary
Geese are the economically most important species of poultry around the world. the low reproductive performance of geese significantly restricts their industrial scale (Ding et al, 2014). Heritability of male reproduction–related phenotypes (e.g., semen quality) was reported to be significantly higher than those of females among domestic animals (Berry et al, 2014) These results indicate the importance of understanding the male reproductive performance in geese. Spermatogenesis is a complicated physiological process of male reproduction, which includes mitotic proliferation of spermatogonia, primary spermatocytes that undergo meiosis into round sperm, and the round sperm morphology differentiating into sperm (Brillard, 2003; Slowinska et al, 2011; Akhlaghi et al, 2014; Haseeb et al, 2019) These major steps are involved in avian spermatogenesis (Aire, 2014), but more details of avian spermatogenesis, especially the spermatogenesis of geese, and its related molecular mechanism still need to be further studied (Aire, 2014). Differences in testicular tissue structure and related gene expression may be the main reason for the observed differences in reproductive performance between Landes geese (LG) and Sichuan White geese (SWG)
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