Prospermatogonia transcriptome changes in Taf4b-deficient male mice

Taf4b-deficient male mice are initially sub-fertile and become infertile due to a depletion of the spermatogonial stem cell (SSC) reserve. During embryonic time points, significantly reduced numbers of germ cells have been observed in the Taf4b-deficient male gonad and previous research has shown that Taf4b mRNA expression peaks at E15.5. Therefore, we hypothesized that TAF4b, as part of TFIID, regulates cell cycle and SSC gene programs. We performed RNA-seq to examine gene expression changes in E14.5 and E16.5 male Taf4b-wildtype, Taf4b-heterozygous, and Taf4b-deficient germ cells Overall design: E14.5 and E16.5 prospermatogonia were obtained through fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) from Taf4b-wildtype, Taf4b-heterozygous, and Taf4b-deficient male germ cells