Anatomical transcriptome atlas of the male mouse reproductive system during aging

The testis, efferent ductules, epididymis, and vas deferens, constituting the majority of male reproductive tract, are the regions for testosterone production, spermatogenesis, and sperm maturation, storage and discharge, but whether these regions change during aging is unknown. Here, we addressed this by investigating the adult (3-month) and aged (18-month) transcriptomes from seven regions of male mouse reproductive tract：the testis, efferent ductules, initial segment, caput, corpus and cauda epididymis, and vas deferens. We identified various of region-specific genes across different regions of male mouse reproductive tract. Moreover, we identified region-dependent changes of transcripts at an anatomic resolution. This study provides a framework for futher studies on male reproducitve aging. The tissues (testis, efferent ductules, initial segment, caput, corpus and cauda epididymis, and vas deferens) were dissected from the 3 months (n = 4) and 21 months old mice (n = 4). After total RNA extraction and library preparation, high throughput RNA sequencing was performed using Illumina novaseq 6000. Reads were aligned with Hisat2 to the mouse genome (Ensemble Mouse GRCm38).