3'DGE-seq analysis of fetal rat testis reveals limited transcriptional changes after exposure to azole fungicides triticonazole and flusilazole despite adverse in vivo effects

Conclusions: Sequencing revealed few transcriptional changes in the fetal rat testes exposed to flusilazole or triticonazole. This suggests that flusilazole may be directly targeting steroidogenic enzyme activity in the testis at the protein level, whereas triticonazole may primarily disturbe androgen signaling in androgen-sensitive tissues. Expression of Calb2 and Gsta2 was altered by flusilazole but not triticonazole and may pinpoint novel pathways of disrupted testicular steroid synthesis. Our findings have wider implication for how we integrate omics data in chemical testing frameworks, including selection of non-animal test methods and building of Adverse Outcome Pathways for regulatory purposes.