Abstract
In mammals, Yin Yang 1 (YY1), a pervasively expressed transcription factor related to many biological processes as an activator or inhibitor of the transcription of various genes, plays a critical role in the development of male gonads and spermatogenesis. Although the role of YY1 on the development of male gonads and spermatogenesis in mammals has been reported, its function on chicken testis are yet to be clarified. In this study, we used immunofluorescence analysis to investigate the location of YY1 in chicken testis. In embryo testis, YY1 was detected in spermatogonia and Sertoli cells, while in adult testis, YY1 was shown to be expressed in spermatogenic cells and Sertoli cells, but not in spermatozoa. Furthermore, we investigated the regulatory functions of YY1 in chicken testicular Sertoli cells by combining overexpression with RNA-sequencing. Overexpression of YY1 in Sertoli cells revealed a total of 2955 differentially expressed genes involved in various biological processes, such as male gonad development and seminiferous tubule development. Overexpression of YY1 also caused significant differences in the expression of the androgen receptor gene and the inhibin βA gene, two major genes involved in the regulation of spermatogonia in Sertoli cells. These observations indicate that YY1 may regulate the development and function of the gonads by affecting the secretion of cytokines and hormones in Sertoli cells to mediate the production and differentiation of spermatogonia.
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This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant number 31872342.
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LC and LQ: performed the experiments, analyzed the data, and wrote the manuscript; YG: performed part of experiments; YH and WL: analyzed the transcriptome data; YF: discussed the results and revised the manuscript.
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The datasets of RNA-sequencing are available at the NCBI Short Read Archive (SRA) with the GenBank accession No.: PRJNA725356.
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All animal experiment procedures were conducted following the guidelines for the care and use of experimental animals established by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China. This project was also approved by the Scientific Ethics Committee of Huazhong Agricultural University (Wuhan, China).
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Communicated by Joan Cerdá.
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Chen, L., Qiao, L., Guo, Y. et al. Localization and regulatory function of Yin Yang 1 (YY1) in chicken testis. Mol Genet Genomics 297, 113–123 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-021-01840-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00438-021-01840-8