Whole transcriptome RNAseq analysis of somatic cells in Inhba fetal testes

We performed RNA-seq on testicular somatic cells from fetal activin A-deficient mice (Inhba KO) and wildtype littermates at embryonic ages E13.5 and E15.5. Activin A deficiency predominantly affects the Sertoli cell transcriptome. New candidate targets include Minar1, Sel1l3, Vnn1, Sfrp4, Masp1, Nell1, Tthy1 and Prss12. Importantly, the testosterone (T) biosynthetic enzymes present in fetal Sertoli cells, Hsd17b1 and Hsd17b3, were identified as activin-responsive. Activin-deficient testes contained elevated androstenedione (A4), displayed an Inhba gene dose-dependent A4/T ratio, and contained 11-keto androgens. Overall design: Whole transcriptome RNAseq performed on embryonic E13.5 and E15.5 Inhba x Oct4 GFP WT and KO testicular somatic cells (germ cells excluded). Cells collected from n=3-4 individual animals/age/genotype