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. 2020 Oct 20;10(10):1924.
doi: 10.3390/ani10101924.

Ovarian Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals Differential Expression Genes Associated with Cell Death Process after Selection for Ovulation Rate in Rabbits

Marta Serna-García  1   2 , Rosa Peiró  3 , Eva Serna  4 , María Antonia Santacreu  1
Affiliations

Ovarian Transcriptomic Analysis Reveals Differential Expression Genes Associated with Cell Death Process after Selection for Ovulation Rate in Rabbits

Marta Serna-García et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

Litter size is an essential trait in rabbit meat production but with low heritability. A selection experiment for ovulation rate has been performed for 10 generations to improve litter size in rabbits. The selected line increased two ova more than the control line but nevertheless a negative correlation was observed with prenatal survival. A transcriptomic study was performed, using microarrays, in ovarian tissue from females belonging to the selected line and the control line. Our results showed 1357 differential expressed genes and nineteen potential biomarkers associated with prenatal mortality, which could explain differences between litter size in rabbits. Cell death was the most relevant process.

Keywords: litter size; ovarian tissue; ovulation rate; rabbit; transcriptomic analysis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Principal component analysis (PCA) of the whole transcriptome of control line (C line, purple color) and line selected for ovulation rate during 10 generations (OR line, green color) in ovarian tissue. The total percentage of PCA mapping variability is 67.9%. Each data point represents one sample. The ellipsoids highlight the portioning of the different samples.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Unsupervised hierarchical clustering of 1357 differentially expressed genes in ovarian tissue. In purple, the control line (C line) clustered a completely different manner than the ovulation rate selected line (OR line, in green). Each line represents a sample and each column a gene. Overexpressed genes are represented in red and underexpressed genes in blue.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Customized subnetwork analysis focused on nineteen genes involved in cell death in ovarian tissue. Up-regulated (in red) and down-regulated (in blue) genes in the line selected for ovulation rate during 10 generations (OR line) vs. the control line (C line). The dashed line means the regulation relationship. Relations are colored by effect: Red color expressed a negative effect, green color expressed a positive effect, and grey expressed unknown effects.
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