摘要
Mammalian testis development is a complex and highly sophisticated process. To study the dynamic change of normal testis development at the transcriptional level, we investigated mouse testes at three postnatal ages: 6 days postnatal, 4 weeks old, and 10 weeks old, representing infant (PN1), juvenile (PN2), and adult (PN3) stages, respectively. Using ultra high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) technology, we obtained 211 million reads with a length of 35 bp. We identified 18837 genes that were expressed in mouse testes, and found that genes expressed at the highest level were involved in spermatogenesis. The gene expression pattern in PN1 was distinct from that in PN2 and PN3, which indicates that spermatogenesis has commenced in PN2. We analyzed a large number of genes related to spermatogenesis and somatic development of the testis, which play important roles at different developmental stages. We also found that the MAPK, Hedgehog, and Wnt signaling pathways were significantly involved at different developmental stages. These findings further our understanding of the molecular mechanisms that regulate testis development. Our study also demonstrates significant advantages of RNA-seq technology for studying transcriptome during development.
Mammalian testis development is a complex and highly sophisticated process. To study the dynamic change of normal testis development at the transcriptional level, we investigated mouse testes at three postnatal ages： 6 days postnatal, 4 weeks old, and 10 weeks old, representing infant （PN1）, juvenile （PN2）, and adult （PN3） stages, respectively. Using ultra high-throughput RNA sequencing （RNA-seq） technology, we obtained 211 million reads with a length of 35 bp. We identified 18837 genes that were expressed in mouse testes, and found that genes expressed at the highest level were involved in spermatogenesis. The gene expression pattern in PN1 was distinct from that in PN2 and PN3, which indicates that spermatogenesis has commenced in PN2. We analyzed a large number of genes related to spermatogenesis and somatic development of the testis, which play important roles at different developmental stages. We also found that the MAPK, Hedgehog, and Wnt signaling pathways were significantly involved at different developmental stages. These findings further our understanding of the molecular mecha- nisms that regulate testis development. Our study also demonstrates significant advantages of RNA-seq technology for study- ing transcriptome during development.
基金
supported by the National Basic Research Program of China(2011CB944100,2011CB944101)
the National Natural Science Foundation of China (90919024)
the Special Foundation Work Program of Ministry of Science and Technology (2009FY120100)
the National High Technology Research and Development Program of Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2012AA020409)
作者简介
Corresponding author （email： junyu@big.ac.cn）
