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. 2017 Aug 22;7(1):9055.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-08738-9.

Analyses of Long Non-Coding RNA and mRNA profiling using RNA sequencing in chicken testis with extreme sperm motility

Yifan Liu  1   2   3 , Yanyan Sun  1 , Yunlei Li  1 , Hao Bai  1 , Fuguang Xue  1 , Songshan Xu  1 , Hong Xu  1 , Lei Shi  1 , Ning Yang  2 , Jilan Chen  4
Affiliations

Analyses of Long Non-Coding RNA and mRNA profiling using RNA sequencing in chicken testis with extreme sperm motility

Yifan Liu et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Sperm motility is the most important indicator in evaluating roosters' fecundity. However, the genetic mechanisms underlying chicken sperm motility is not yet clear. Long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) play epigenetic roles in reproduction. In this study, RNA sequencing was employed to profile the testis transcriptome (lncRNA and mRNA) of six Beijing-you cocks divergent in sperm motility. In total, 2,597 lncRNAs were identified in the chicken testis, including 1,267 lincRNAs, 975 anti-sense lncRNAs, and 355 intronic lncRNAs. They shared similar features with previous studies. Of these lncRNAs, 124 were differentially expressed. Among 17,690 mRNAs detected in this study, 544 were differentially expressed, including a bunch of genes with known functions on sperm motility. GO annotation analysis revealed these genes were involved in ATP binding, cilium assembly, and oxidation-reduction processes. Integrating analysis of lncRNA and mRNA profiles predicted 10 lncRNA-gene pairs, including 8 co-regulated and 2 inversely-regulated pairs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first genome-wide investigation of the lncRNAs in the chicken testis associated with sperm motility. Our results provided a catalog of chicken testis lncRNAs and genes worthy of further studies to understand their roles in cocks' reproductive performance regulation.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The distribution of testis lncRNA on chicken chromosome.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Genomic features of predicted lncRNAs. (A) Length distribution of lncRNAs and mRNAs. (B) Exon number distribution of lncRNAs and mRNAs.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Heat maps of the distinguishable expression profiles in chicken testis between low and high sperm motility groups. (A) Hierarchical clustering of the differentially expressed lncRNA. (B) Hierarchical clustering of the differentially expressed mRNAs.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Illustrating of qPCR confirmation for RNA-seq. (A) Validation of 6 selected differential lncRNAs; (B) Validation of 8 selected differential mRNAs.
Figure 5
Figure 5
GO analysis of differentially expressed genes between low and high sperm motility groups. BP: biological process; CC: cellular component; MF: molecular function. The marked “*” means significantly enriched GO terms.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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