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. 2019 Dec 5;10(12):1010.
doi: 10.3390/genes10121010.

Sex Determination Using RNA-Sequencing Analyses in Early Prenatal Pig Development

Susana A Teixeira  1 , Adriana M G Ibelli  2 , Maurício E Cantão  2 , Haniel C de Oliveira  1 , Mônica C Ledur  2 , Jane de O Peixoto  2 , Daniele B D Marques  1 , Karine A Costa  1 , Luiz L Coutinho  3 , Simone E F Guimarães  1
Affiliations

Sex Determination Using RNA-Sequencing Analyses in Early Prenatal Pig Development

Susana A Teixeira et al. Genes (Basel). .

Abstract

Sexual dimorphism is a relevant factor in animal science, since it can affect the gene expression of economically important traits. Eventually, the interest in the prenatal phase in a transcriptome study may not comprise the period of development in which male and female conceptuses are phenotypically divergent. Therefore, it would be interesting if sex differentiation could be performed using transcriptome data, with no need for extra techniques. In this study, the sex of pig conceptuses (embryos at 25 days-old and fetuses at 35 days-old) was determined by reads counts per million (CPM) of Y chromosome-linked genes that were discrepant among samples. Thus, ten genes were used: DDX3Y, KDM5D, ZFY, EIF2S3Y, EIF1AY, LOC110255320, LOC110257894, LOC396706, LOC100625207, and LOC110255257. Conceptuses that presented reads CPM sum for these genes (ΣCPMchrY) greater than 400 were classified as males and those with ΣCPMchrY below 2 were classified as females. It was demonstrated that the sex identification can be performed at early stages of pig development from RNA-sequencing analysis of genes mapped on Y chromosome. Additionally, these results reinforce that sex determination is a mechanism conserved across mammals, highlighting the importance of using pigs as an animal model to study sex determination during human prenatal development.

Keywords: conceptuses development; conceptuses sex determination; early gestation; pig transcriptome.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Multi-dimensional scale (MDS) plot showing segregation of pig conceptuses (25D: embryos at 25 days-old and 35D: fetuses at 35 days-old) into two distinct sex groups. Red: Female conceptuses; Black: Male conceptuses; Samples identification: male embryos from supplemented (E-25DA-M) or non-supplemented (E-25DC-M) gilts; male fetuses from supplemented (F-35DA-M) or non-supplemented (F-35DC-M) gilts; female embryos from supplemented (E-25DA-F) or non-supplemented (E-25DC-F) gilts; female fetuses from supplemented (F-35DA-F) or non-supplemented (F-35DC-F) gilts.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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