Next Generation Sequencing of Wild Type and Glis3 Mutant Fetal Testis Transcriptomes

The goals of this study are to utilize high-throughput transcriptome sequencing of mutant and control fetal testis samples to identify changes in both transcript and repeat element abundance in tissues harboring a homozygous mutation for Glis3. 672 unique genes were differentially expressed in mutant versus wild-type samples. Of the downregulated genes, there was a strong enrichment for piRNA pathway members, while upregulated genes were associated with leydig cell differentiation, meiosis, and histone cluster genes. Differential expression of several repeat elements was also detected in mutant samples. Our findings provide valuable information on the potential mechanisms underlying the fetal germ cell loss observed in Glis3 mutant testes. Whole testis mRNA profiles of embryonic day 14.5 wild type (WT) and Glis3 mutant mice were generated by deep sequencing, using Illumina HiSeq2500