Morrell, Jane
- Department of Clinical Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Abstract
Sperm, which are believed to be transcriptionally and translationally inactive, synthesize RNA and proteins before there is gradual disappearance of the ribosome during chromatin compaction. Sperm transfer several functionally relevant transcripts to the oocyte, controlling maternal-zygotic transition and embryonic development. The present study was undertaken to profile and analyze sperm transcripts comprehensively using Next Generation Ribonucleic acid sequencing technology in Holstein Friesian x Tharparkar crossbred bulls. The results from global transcriptomic profiling revealed transcripts for 13,814 genes; of which 431 transcripts were expressed with >1 FPKM and 13,383 transcripts were expressed with >0 or 1 FPKM revealed there was a major involvement in the structural constituent of ribosomes and translation. Results from pathway enrichment indicated the connection between ribosome, oxidative phosphorylation and spliceosome pathways and the transcripts of crossbred bull spermatozoa. The transcriptional abundance of selected genes, validated using RT-qPCR, indicated significant variations between bulls. Collectively, it may be inferred that the transcripts in crossbred bull sperm were heavily implicated in functions such as the structural constituent of ribosomes and translation, and pathways such as ribosome, oxidative phosphorylation and spliceosome. Further studies using larger sample sizes are required to understand the possible implications of transcriptomic variations on semen quality and fertility.
Keywords
Crossbred Bull; Spermatozoa; Transcriptomic profiling; RNA-Seq; Ribosome; Oxidative phosphorylation
Published in
Animal Reproduction Science
2020, volume: 222, article number: 106621
SLU Authors
UKÄ Subject classification
Animal and Dairy Science
Publication identifier
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anireprosci.2020.106621
Permanent link to this page (URI)
https://res.slu.se/id/publ/108262