Next Generation Sequencing Facilitates Quantitative Analysis of testis Transcriptomes in Xenopus laevis

Purpose: Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are implicated in multiple developmental anomalies. The goals of this study are to research whether circRNAs involve in the effects in atrazine (AZ)-exposed X. laevis Methods: At Nieuwkoop-Faber (NF) stage 47 (13 d post-hatch), mixed sex X. laevis tadpoles exposed to 100 µg/L AZ for 180 days. Then total RNAs from individual testis was isolated. RNA library construction and circRNA sequencing was analysis Results: CircRNAs were detected and identified with Find_circ software. We found that treatment of AZ led to 405 circRNAs differentially expressed including 44 upregulated and 361 downregulated compared with froglets in the control groups. Two hundreds and eighty two differentially expressed circRNAs played miRNA sponges roles. Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis of miRNA targets showed that AZ-affected circRNAs are mainly involved in 19 pathways Conclusions: This study for the fisrt time provides evidence that AZ can alter circRNAs which play a role in AZ-induced testicular degeneration of developing male X. laevis through regulation of expressions of functional genes in the testes of X. laevis. Examing circRNAs of testes of X. laevis from 2 conditions including AZ-treated and control, each with 3 replicates, using Illumina HiSeq 4000