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Vertebrate reproductive science and technology
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Transcriptome analyses of potential regulators of pre- and post-ovulatory follicles in the pigeon (Columba livia)

Lizhi Lu A , Long Zhang B , Tao Zeng A , Xue Du A , Zhengrong Tao A , Guoqin Li A , Shengliang Zhong C , Jihui Wen D , Caiquan Zhou B and Xiaoqin Xu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1745-5215 B *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Science, 310021 Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China.

B Institute of Ecology, Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation (Ministry of Education), China West Normal University, 637009 Nanchong, Sichuan, China.

C PingYang XingLiang Pigeon Farming Co. Ltd., 325000 Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China.

D PingYang AoFeng Pigeon Farming Co. Ltd., 325000 Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China.

* Correspondence to: xuxiaoqin21@126.com

Handling Editor: Xiaolong Wang

Reproduction, Fertility and Development 34(9) 689-697 https://doi.org/10.1071/RD21239
Published online: 4 April 2022

© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing

Abstract

To identify the dominant genes controlling follicular maturation, ovulation and regression for pigeon, we used RNA-seq to explore the gene expression profiles of pre- and post-ovulatory follicles of pigeon. We obtained total of 4.73 million (96% of the raw data) high-quality clean reads, which could be aligned with 20 282 genes. Gene expression profile analysis identified 1461 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the pre- (P4) and post-ovulatory follicles (P5). Of these, 843 genes were upregulated, and 618 genes were down-regulated. Furthermore, many DEGs were significantly enriched in some pathways closely related to follicle maturation, ovulation and regression, such as ECM–receptor interaction, vascular smooth muscle contraction, progesterone-mediated oocyte maturation, phagosome. Importantly, the DGEs in ECM–receptor interaction pathway included COL1A1, COL1A2, COL4A1, COL4A2, ITGA11, ITGB3 and SDC3, in the progesterone-mediated oocyte maturation pathway involved CDK1, CDC25A, CCNB3, CDC20 and Plk1, and in the vascular smooth muscle contraction covered CALD1, KCNMA1, KCNMB1, CACNA1, ACTA2, MYH10, MYL3, MYL6, MYL9, closely related to promoting follicular maturation and ovulation in pre-ovulatory follicles. Moreover, it seems that the lysosomal cathepsin family has a decisive role in the regression of early stage of post-ovulatory follicle. Taken together, these data enrich the research of molecular mechanisms of pigeon follicular activities at the transcriptional level and provide novel insight of breeding-related physiology for birds.

Keywords: maturation, ovulation, pigeon, pre-ovulatory follicles, post-ovulatory follicles, regression, RNA-Seq, transcriptome.


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