A comparative profile of the mRNA and microRNA transcriptome in immature and mature bovine testes

This study aim to screening potential regulators of fecundity, the bovine testes of immature and mature in Chinese Red Steppes were performed by a genome-wide analysis of mRNAs and miRNAs. Compared with born testicular tissue, 6051 upregulated genes and 7104 downregulated genes in adult bovine testicular tissue were identified as differentially expressed genes (DEGs) (log2FC>1 or <-1 , FDR <0.05). The DEGs were significantly enriched in 808 GO terms (p <0.05), which are involved in sperm biological activity, including male gonad development, male genitalia development, spermatogenesis, sperm motility, spermatid development, sperm chromatin condensation, etc. Moreover, DEGs were also significantly enriched in 105 KEGG pathways (p <0.05), such as focal adhesion, cGMP-PKG signaling pathway and calcium signaling pathway, etc. To explore the miRNA-regulated gene expression network integrated analysis was used between DEGs and differentially expressed miRNAs (DERs). Correlation prediction and analysis found that 896 differentially expressed target genes were negatively correlated with the expression levels of 31 differentially expressed bovine miRNAs. Our results identified novel candidate DEGs and DERs correlated with male reproduction, which will be valuable for future genetic and epigenetic studies of sperm development and maturity, as well as provided valuable insights into the molecular mechanisms of the male fertility and spermatogenesis in cattle. Overall design: A genome-wide profiling of mRNA and miRNA of Chinese Red Steppes cattle by next-generation sequencing technology in immature and mature testicular tissue