Cryopreservation Induces Alterations of miRNA and mRNA Fragment Profiles of Bull Sperm

Aishao Shangguan; Hao Zhou; Wei Sun; Rui Ding; Xihe Li; Jiajia Liu; Yang Zhou; Xing Chen; Fengling Ding; Liguo Yang; Shujun Zhang

doi:10.3389/fgene.2020.00419

Cryopreservation Induces Alterations of miRNA and mRNA Fragment Profiles of Bull Sperm

Front Genet. 2020 May 5:11:419. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2020.00419. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Aishao Shangguan¹, Hao Zhou¹, Wei Sun², Rui Ding², Xihe Li², Jiajia Liu³, Yang Zhou¹, Xing Chen⁴, Fengling Ding¹, Liguo Yang¹, Shujun Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Agricultural Animal Genetics, Breeding and Reproduction, Education Ministry of China, College of Animal Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China.
² Inner Mongolia Saikexing Institute of Breeding and Reproductive Biotechnology in Domestic Animal, Hohhot, China.
³ School of Biological Science and Technology, University of Jinan, Jinan, China.
⁴ Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary, Wuhan Academy of Agricultural Science, Wuhan, China.

Abstract

Although cryopreservation of bull semen is widely used commercially in the livestock breeding industry, cryopreservation results in low fertility of bull sperm. As an important regulatory factor, the alteration of small non-coding RNA (sncRNA) profile during cryopreservation of bull sperm is not yet completely known. In the present study, we sequenced sncRNAs of frozen and fresh sperm to study the link of alteration of the sncRNA profiles (particularly in miRNAs and mRNA fragments) with low sperm fertility caused by cryopreservation. We identified 55 miRNAs and 526 mRNA fragments differentially expressed (DE) between frozen and fresh sperm. Subsequently, the functional analysis revealed that targeted genes of DE miRNAs in sperm had roles in the fertilization, ATP, and apoptosis. Instead, targeted genes of DE miRNAs in cow metaphase II oocyte were significantly enriched in the MAPK signaling pathway, autophagy-animal pathway, and mitophagy-animal pathway. Additionally, biological processes of DNA repair, spermatid development, response to temperature stimulus, and cellular response to DNA damage stimulus were enriched by mRNA fragments. In conclusion, we found that DE miRNAs or DE mRNA fragments in cryopreservation may influence the fertility of sperm, these findings will provide the reference to improve the cryopreservation technology of bull semen.

Keywords: bull sperm; cryopreservation; mRNA fragments; miRNA; sperm fertility.