Long noncoding RNA expression profile changes associated with dietary energy in the sheep testis during sexual maturation

Yanli Zhang,Caifang Ren,Fengzhe Li,Shengyong Mao,Le Han,Hua Yang,Feng Wang,Tingting Zhang,Xu Feng,Jing Pang

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-05443-5

Abstract

Spermatogenesis can be affected by nutrition, which operates through normal physiological processes by changing the testicular mass and hormone levels profoundly. However, little is known regarding how testis development is regulated by long noncoding RNA (lncRNA). In this study, we investigated the effects of high-grain (HG) feeding on testis development during sexual maturation mediated by lncRNA. The HG diet group showed an increase in growth hormone (GH), insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and testosterone (T) levels, and in the number of sperm in the seminiferous tubules compared with the hay-fed group (p < 0.05). Moreover, we found 59 differentially expressed (DE) lncRNAs and 229 DE mRNAs in sheep testis between the two groups. qRT-PCR results of 20 randomly selected DE lncRNAs and mRNAs were also consistent with the RNA-seq data. Through functional enrichment analysis and lncRNA-mRNA interaction network analysis, we screened several lncRNAs that may be enriched for male reproduction such as spermatogenesis, sperm motility, steroid hormones, MAPK and ErbB signaling pathways. This study provides a first insight into the development of the testis with HG feeding in sheep and shows that these changes are associated with alterations in lncRNA expression.

Highlights

In the current intensive sheep production system in China, most rams are fed high-energy diets after sexual maturation, in order to maximize their body weight gain
There is limited number of long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) identified in sheep testes, which may be a bottleneck for further study of their complex physiological processes in sheep testicular development and spermatogenesis
LncRNAs have gained widespread attention as a novel regulatory player in cellular development over the past few years owing to high-throughput transcriptome analysis19. lncRNAs are abundant in testis, while the overall number undergoes developmental changes are similar to mRNAs10, 20, 21

Summary

Introduction

In the current intensive sheep production system in China, most rams are fed high-energy diets after sexual maturation, in order to maximize their body weight gain. Many lncRNAs have been identified in specific developmental stages of testes and spermatogenesis in mouse, rat and human models They are predicted to have critical roles in testicular development and spermatogenesis, such as mrh[1], Tsx, Dmr and HongrES215–18. In order to gain insights into the relationships between lncRNA functions and testicular development responses to nutrition, we investigated the lncRNAs expression profiles of the testis from HG feeding and control hay feeding sheep. This is the first study to describe the expression profiles of lncRNAs in sheep testes. Our data will provide a useful resource for studying their functional roles in reproduction

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Results

Conclusion