Gene expression profiles of bovine genital ridges during sex determination and early differentiation of the gonads†

Abstract

Most current knowledge of sex determination in mammals has emerged from mouse and human studies. To investigate the molecular regulation of the sex determination process in cattle, we used an RNA sequencing strategy to analyze the transcriptome landscape of male and female bovine fetal gonads collected in vivo at key developmental stages: before, during, and after SRY gene activation on fetal days D35 (bipotential gonad formation), D39 (peak SRY expression), and D43 (early gonad differentiation). Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified in male vs. female germinal ridges and among group genes showing similar expression profiles during the three periods. There were 143, 96, and 658 DEG between males and female fetuses at D35, D39, and D43, respectively. On D35, genes upregulated in females were enriched in translation, nuclear export, RNA localization, and mRNA splicing events, whereas those upregulated in males were enriched in cell proliferation regulation and male sex determination terms. In time-course experiments, 767 DEGs in males and 545 DEGs in females were identified between D35 vs. D39, and 3157 DEGs in males and 2008 in females were identified between D39 vs. D43. Results highlight unique aspects of sex determination in cattle, such as the expression of several Y chromosome genes (absent in mice and humans) before SRY expression and an abrupt increase in the nuclear expression of SOX10 (instead of SOX9 expression in the Sertoli cell cytoplasm as observed in mice) during male determination and early differentiation.

Keywords: RNA-seq:genital ridges; cattle; gonad differentiation; sex determination.