| First Author | Wang X | Year | 2023 |
| Journal | Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) | Volume | 14 |
| Pages | 1190890 | PubMed ID | 37324270 |
| Mgi Jnum | J:336742 | Mgi Id | MGI:7490665 |
| Doi | 10.3389/fendo.2023.1190890 | Citation | Wang X, et al. (2023) Transcriptome profiling of the initial segment and proximal caput of mouse epididymis. Front Endocrinol (Lausanne) 14:1190890 |
| abstractText | BACKGROUND: The proximal region of the mouse epididymis plays a pivotal role in sperm transport, sperm maturation, and male fertility. Several studies have focused on segment-dependent gene expression of the mouse epididymis through high-throughput sequencing without the precision of the microdissection. METHODS AND RESULTS: Herein, we isolated the initial segment (IS) and proximal caput (P-caput) by physical microdissection using an Lcn9-cre; Rosa26(tdTomato) mouse model. We defined the transcriptome changes of caput epididymis by RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), which identified 1,961 genes that were abundantly expressed in the IS and 1,739 genes that were prominently expressed in the P-caput. In addition, we found that many differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were predominantly or uniquely expressed in the epididymis and region-specific genes were highly associated with transport, secretion, sperm motility, fertilization, and male fertility. CONCLUSION: Thus, this study provides an RNA-seq resource to identify region-specific genes in the caput epididymis. The epididymal-selective/specific genes are potential targets for male contraception and may provide new insights into understanding segment-specific epididymal microenvironment-mediated sperm transport, maturation, and male fertility. |
