Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Jul 8;25(1):680.
doi: 10.1186/s12864-024-10544-3.

Dietary restriction promote sperm remodeling in aged roosters based on transcriptome analysis

Wenjie Liang #  1 , Yuehua He #  1 , Tingqi Zhu  1 , Binbin Zhang  1 , Shuangxing Liu  1 , Haishan Guo  1 , Pingquan Liu  1 , Huayuan Liu  2 , Donghua Li  3   1 , Xiangtao Kang  3   1 , Wenting Li  4   5 , Guirong Sun  6   7
Affiliations

Dietary restriction promote sperm remodeling in aged roosters based on transcriptome analysis

Wenjie Liang et al. BMC Genomics. .

Abstract

Background: The breeder rooster has played a pivotal role in poultry production by providing high-quality semen. Typically, fertility peaks between 30 and 40 weeks of age and then declines rapidly from 45 to 55 weeks of age. Research into improving fertility in aging roosters is essential to extend their productive life. While progress has been made, enhancing fertility in aging roosters remains a significant challenge.

Methods: To identify the genes related to promoting sperm remodeling in aged Houdan roosters, we combined changes in testis and semen quality with transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) to analyze the synchrony of semen quality and testis development. In this study, 350-day-old Houdan breeder roosters were selected for RNA-seq analysis in testis tissues from induced molting roosters (D group) and non-induced molting roosters (47DG group). All analyses of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and functional enrichment were performed. Finally, we selected six DEGs to verify the accuracy of the sequencing by qPCR.

Results: Compared with the 47DG group, sperm motility (P < 0.05), sperm density (P < 0.01), and testis weight (P < 0.05) were significantly increased in roosters in the D group. Further RNA-seq analysis of the testis between the D group and 47DG group identified 61 DEGs, with 21 up-regulated and 40 down-regulated. Functional enrichment analysis showed that the DEGs were primarily enriched in the cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, Wnt signaling pathway, MAPK signaling pathway, TGF-β signaling pathway, and focal adhesion pathway. The qRT-PCR results showed that the expression trend of these genes was consistent with the sequencing results. WNT5A, FGFR3, AGTR2, TGFβ2, ROMO1, and SLC26A7 may play a role in testis development and spermatogenesis. This study provides fundamental data to enhance the reproductive value of aging roosters.

Keywords: Molting; Reproductive performance; Roosters; Spermatogenesis; Transcriptome..

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Effect of induced molting on semen quality and weight in testes of aged Houdan roosters. (a): Changes in sperm density. (b): Changes in sperm motility. (c): Changes in testis weight
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Differentially expressed genes in D group and 47DG group. (a): Results analysis of differentially expressed genes, (b): Volcano map of differentially expressed genes
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The principal component analysis (PCA) of the D group and 47DG group. main principal component (PC) scores as follows: PC1 = 46.33% and PC2 = 21.99%
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Heatmaps based on generated from six samples in the D group and 47DG group
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis. (a) Top 20 GO Term enrichment of DEGs, the bubble size represents the number of DEGs, and the bubble color represents the Q-value. (b) Top 20 KEGG pathway enrichment of DEGs, the bubble size represents the number of DEGs, and the bubble color represents the Q-value
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Expression comparison of 6 genes by qRT-PCR and RNA-Seq in group D and group DG. (a) BPIFCB; (b) SLC2A12; (c) ROMO1; (d) WNT5A; (e) SLC26A7; (f) TGFβ2
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Zhu T, Liang W, He Y, Zhang B, Liu C, Wang D, Deng L, Li D, Li W, Yan F, et al. Transcriptomic analysis of mechanism underlying the effect of induced molting on semen quality and reproductive performance in aged Houdan roosters. Poult Sci. 2023;102(10):102935. doi: 10.1016/j.psj.2023.102935. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Avital-Cohen N, Heiblum R, Argov-Argaman N, Rosenstrauch A, Chaiseha Y, Mobarkey N, Rozenboim I. Age-related changes in gonadal and serotonergic axes of broiler breeder roosters. Domest Anim Endocrinol. 2013;44(3):145–50. doi: 10.1016/j.domaniend.2013.01.002. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Oliveira LBT, Butolo JEG, Butolo EAF, Reis RS, Travençolo BAN, Beletti ME. L-arginine supplementation minimizes aging-induced changes in the sperm chromatin of roosters. Poult Sci. 2023;102(8):102805. doi: 10.1016/j.psj.2023.102805. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Johnston SD, López-Fernández C, Pappin E, Hampe A, Doneley R, Lierz M, Gosálvez J. Assessment of avian sperm DNA fragmentation using the sperm chromatin dispersion assay. Reprod Fertil Dev. 2020;32(10):948–52. doi: 10.1071/RD19420. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Nemati Z, Dehgani P, Besharati M, Amirdahri S. Dietary carob fruit (Ceratonia siliqua L.) supplementation improves spermatogenesis, semen quality and embryonic death via antioxidant effect in aging broiler breeder roosters. Anim Reprod Sci. 2022;239:106967. doi: 10.1016/j.anireprosci.2022.106967. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources