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. 2021 Apr 21:9:e10953.
doi: 10.7717/peerj.10953. eCollection 2021.

Photoperiod induced the pituitary differential regulation of lncRNAs and mRNAs related to reproduction in sheep

Xiaoyun He #  1 , Lin Tao #  1 , Yingjie Zhong  1 , Ran Di  1 , Qing Xia  1 , Xiangyu Wang  1 , Xiaofei Guo  2 , Shangquan Gan  3 , Xiaosheng Zhang  2 , Jinlong Zhang  2 , Qiuyue Liu  1 , Mingxing Chu  1
Affiliations

Photoperiod induced the pituitary differential regulation of lncRNAs and mRNAs related to reproduction in sheep

Xiaoyun He et al. PeerJ. .

Abstract

The pituitary is a vital endocrine organ that regulates animal seasonal reproduction by controlling the synthesis and secretion of the hormone. The change of photoperiod is the key factor affecting the function of the pituitary in animals, but the mechanism is unclear. Here, we studied the transcriptomic variation in pars distalis (PD) of the pituitary between short photoperiod (SP) and long photoperiod (LP) using RNA sequencing based on the OVX+E2 sheep. 346 differentially expressed (DE) lncRNAs and 186 DE-mRNA were found in the PD. Moreover, function annotation analysis indicated that the reproductive hormones and photoperiod response-related pathways including aldosterone synthesis and secretion, insulin secretion, thyroid hormone synthesis, and circadian entrainment were enriched. The interaction analysis of mRNA-lncRNA suggested that MSTRG.240648, MSTRG.85500, MSTRG.32448, and MSTRG.304959 targeted CREB3L1 and DUSP6, which may be involved in the photoperiodic regulation of the PD. These findings provide resources for further study on the seasonal reproductive in ewes.

Keywords: Photoperiod; Pituitary; RNA sequencing; Sheep; lncRNA; mRNA.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare there are no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Identification of lncRNAs and mRNAs in ovine PD.
(A–B) The screen of lncRNAs. (C) Boxplot of FPKM distribution of each sample. (D–E) The length statistics of lncRNA and mRNA. (F–G) The statistics of lncRNA and mRNA exon number.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Analysis of differentially expressed transcripts.
(A) Volcano map of differentially expressed mRNA in SP42 and LP42. (B) Volcano map of differentially expressed lncRNA in SP42 and LP42. (C) Hierarchical cluster analysis of DE-mRNA in SP42 and LP42. (D) Hierarchical cluster analysis of DE-lncRNA in SP42 and LP42. The logarithm base 2 was taken to calculate Euclidean distance according to the expression of DE-mRNA and DE-lncRNA in each sample, then Hierarchical cluster maps were obtained.Note: purple and blue represent up-regulated and down-regulated transcripts respectively.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Validation of the expression patterns of lncRNA and mRNA using qRT-PCR.
(A) The qPCR verification of the 5 DE-mRNAs in SP42 and LP42. (B) The qPCR verification of the 5 DE-lncRNAs in SP42 and LP42. The expression of transcripts was normalized by β-actin to determine relative expression using 2−ΔΔCt method. Results were expressed as mean±SE, * represents P < 0.05, ** represents P < 0.01, *** represents P < 0.001.
Figure 4
Figure 4. GO and KEGG enrichment analysis of the DE-lncRNAs and DE-mRNAs in PD.
(A) GO function analysis of DE-mRNAs using the top 10 GO terms in each of BP, CC and MF. (B) Top 20 KEGG enrichment pathways of DE-mRNAs in ovine PD. (C) GO enrichment of DE-lncRNA targets using the top 10 GO terms in each of BP, CC and MF. (D) Top 20 KEGG enrichment pathways of DE-lncRNA targets in ovine PD. BP: Biological Process, CC: Cellular Component, MF: Molecular Function.
Figure 5
Figure 5. The network of differentially expressed transcripts involved in reproduction and photoperiodic response in the PD.
(A) The network of 20 DE-mRNAs involved in reproduction and photoperiodic response in the PD. (B) The network between DE-mRNAs with DE-lncRNAs involved in reproduction and photoperiodic response in the PD. Circles and “V” represent mRNAs and lncRNAs, purple and blue represent up-regulated and down-regulated transcripts respectively.
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