The conserved transcriptional landscapes in human spermatogenesis

Spermatogenesis is a complex and highly orchestrated combination of processes in which male germline proliferation and differentiation result in the production of mature spermatozoa. If recent genome-wide studies have contributed to the in-depth analysis of the male germline protein-coding transcriptome, little effort has yet been devoted to the systematic identification of lncRNAs expressed during spermatogenesis in human. We report high-resolution expression profiling of human male germ cells using Illumina next-generation sequencing technology and highly enriched testicular cell populations. 25,161 high-confidence transcripts were reconstructed and classified into eleven expression patterns. Our study provides new insights in transcriptional profiling of the male germline and represents a high-quality resource of novel loci expressed during spermatogenesis that significantly contributes to the human genome annotation. A graphical display of the data is conveniently accessible through the ReproGenomics Viewer (RGV) at http://rgv.genouest.org. Genome-wide expression profiling analysis using Illumina next-generation sequencing technology and highly enriched testicular cell populations