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. 2020 Nov 16;21(1):798.
doi: 10.1186/s12864-020-07206-5.

Sperm miRNAs- potential mediators of bull age and early embryo development

Chongyang Wu  1 , Patrick Blondin  2 , Christian Vigneault  2 , Rémi Labrecque  2 , Marc-André Sirard  3
Affiliations

Sperm miRNAs- potential mediators of bull age and early embryo development

Chongyang Wu et al. BMC Genomics. .

Abstract

Background: Sperm miRNAs were reported to regulate spermatogenesis and early embryonic development in some mammals including bovine. The dairy cattle breeding industry now tends to collect semen from younger bulls under high selection pressure at a time when semen quality may be suboptimal compared to adult bulls. Whether the patterns of spermatic miRNAs are affected by paternal age and/or impact early embryogenesis is not clear. Hence, we generated small non-coding RNA libraries of sperm collected from same bulls at 10, 12, and 16 months of age, using 16 months as control for differential expression and functional analysis.

Results: We firstly excluded all miRNAs present in measurable quantity in oocytes according to the literature. Of the remaining miRNAs, ten sperm-borne miRNAs were significantly differentially expressed in younger bulls (four in the 10 vs 16 months contrast and six in the 12 vs 16 months contrast). Targets of miRNAs were identified and compared to the transcriptomic database of two-cell embryos, to genes related to two-cell competence, and to the transcriptomic database of blastocysts. Ingenuity pathway analysis of the targets of these miRNAs suggested potential influence on the developmental competence of two-cell embryos and on metabolism and protein synthesis in blastocysts.

Conclusions: The results showed that miRNA patterns in sperm are affected by the age of the bull and may mediate the effects of paternal age on early embryonic development.

Keywords: Dairy bull; Embryonic development; Epigenetics; Paternal age; Sperm miRNAs.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
RNA patterns of sperm from bull #06622 at 10 months old. a, b: Bioanalyzer results of total RNA extracted from sperm. c: Small RNA libraries with adapters of 125 nt (small noncoding RNAs as well as miRNAs were cut and purified for sequencing). HRL: High Resolution Ladder. CRL: Custom RNA Ladder. Summary of all RNA patterns of sperm was shown in Supplementary Material (Fig. S2)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Pie charts of RNA distribution in sperm. a: The distribution of RNAs that are expressed in sperm from bulls at 10 vs 16 months. b: The distribution of RNAs that are expressed in sperm from bulls at 12 vs 16 months
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Molecular and cellular functions affected by paternal age in embryos. Listed functions at 2-cell stage are overlapped top five molecular and cellular functions from IPA analysis among the two contrasts (10 vs 16 months and 12 vs 16 months) of the two databases (transcriptomic data of 2-cell embryos and genes related to 2-cell embryo competence). Listed functions at blastocyst stage are overlapped top five molecular and cellular functions from IPA analysis between the two contrasts (10 vs 16 months and 12 vs 16 months) of the blastocyst database
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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