Discovery of piRNAs Pathway Associated with Early-Stage Spermatogenesis in Chicken

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0151780
• Publication Date: 2016-04-05T19:55:01Z
• Authors: Lu Xu; Lingling Qiu; Guobin Chang; Qixin Guo; Xiangping Liu; Yulin Bi; Yu Zhang; Hongzhi Wang; Zhiteng Li; Xiaoming Guo; Fang Wan; Yang Zhang; Qi Xu; Guohong Chen
• Keywords: Male; 0301 basic medicine; Science; Q; R; Avian Proteins; Adult Stem Cells; 03 medical and health sciences; Gene Expression Regulation; Medicine; Animals; RNA, Small Interfering; Spermatogenesis; Chickens; Research Article; Cell Proliferation

Piwi-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) play a key role in spermatogenesis. Here, we describe the piRNAs profiling of primordial germ cells (PGCs), spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs), and the spermatogonium (Sp) during early-stage spermatogenesis in chicken. We obtained 31,361,989 reads from PGCs, 31,757,666 reads from SSCs, and 46,448,327 reads from Sp cells. The length distribution of piRNAs in the three samples showed peaks at 33 nt. The resulting genes were subsequently annotated against the Gene Ontology (GO) database. Five genes (RPL7A, HSPA8, Pum1, CPXM2, and PRKCA) were found to be involved in cellular processes. Interactive pathway analysis (IPA) further revealed three important pathways in early-stage spermatogenesis including the FGF, Wnt, and EGF receptor signaling pathways. The gene Pum1 was found to promote germline stem cell proliferation, but it also plays a role in spermatogenesis. In conclusion, we revealed characteristics of piRNAs during early spermatogonial development in chicken and provided the basis for future research.