Analysis of lncRNA Expression Profile during the Formation of Male Germ Cells in Chickens

Wen Gao; Chen Zhang; Kai Jin; Yani Zhang; Qisheng Zuo; Bichun Li

doi:10.3390/ani10101850

Analysis of lncRNA Expression Profile during the Formation of Male Germ Cells in Chickens

Animals (Basel). 2020 Oct 11;10(10):1850. doi: 10.3390/ani10101850.

Authors

Wen Gao^{1

2}, Chen Zhang^{1

2}, Kai Jin^{1

2}, Yani Zhang^{1

2}, Qisheng Zuo^{1

2}, Bichun Li^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Animal Breeding Reproduction and Molecular Design for Jiangsu Province, College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China.
² Joint International Research Laboratory of Agriculture and Agri-Product Safety of Ministry of Education of China, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China.

Abstract

Germ cells have an irreplaceable role in transmitting genetic information from one generation to the next, and also play an important role in sex differentiation in poultry, while little is known about epigenetic factors that regulate germ cell differentiation. In this study, RNA-seq was used to detect the expression profiles of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) during the differentiation of chicken embryonic stem cells (ESCs) into spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs). The results showed that a total of 296, 280 and 357 differentially expressed lncRNAs (DELs) were screened in ESCs vs. PGCs, ESCs vs. SSCs and PGCs vs. SSCs, respectively. Gene Ontology (GO) and KEGG enrichment analysis showed that DELs in the three cell groups were mainly enriched in autophagy, Wnt/β-catenin, TGF-β, Notch and ErbB and signaling pathways. The co-expression network of 37 candidate DELs and their target genes enriched in the biological function of germ cell development showed that XLOC_612026, XLOC_612029, XLOC_240662, XLOC_362463, XLOC_023952, XLOC_674549, XLOC_160716, ALDBGALG0000001810, ALDBGALG0000002986, XLOC_657380674549, XLOC_022100 and XLOC_657380 were the key lncRNAs in the process of male germ cell formation and, moreover, the function of these DELs may be related to the interaction of their target genes. Our findings preliminarily excavated the key lncRNAs and signaling pathways in the process of male chicken germ cell formation, which could be helpful to construct the gene regulatory network of germ cell development, and also provide new ideas for further optimizing the induction efficiency of germ cells in vitro.

Keywords: chicken; embryonic stem cell; lncRNAs; primordial germ cell; spermatogonial stem cell.