Histology, ultrastructure, and differential gene expression in relation to seasonal sperm storage in the oviduct of the Chinese alligator, Alligator sinensis
Haitao Nie
A # , Yue Wen A , Ruidong Zhang B # , Mengjuan Wu A , Yuqian Zhang A , Yunlu Xu A , Jixiang Zhan A and Xiaobing Wu A *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Key Laboratory for Conservation and Use of Important Biological Resources of Anhui Province, College of Life Sciences, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, Anhui 241000, China.
B College of Life Sciences, Inner Mongolia Normal University, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia 010022, China.
* Correspondence to: wuxb@mail.ahnu.edu
# These authors contributed equally to this paper
Handling Editor: Tod Fullston
Reproduction, Fertility and Development 34(12) 819-832 https://doi.org/10.1071/RD21191
Published online: 17 May 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
Although oviductal sperm storage are essential steps in reproduction for female animals with internal fertilisation, no systematic study on the identification of genes involving sperm storage has been performed in crocodilian species. In the present research, the relationship between morphological variation related to sperm storage in the oviduct and gene expression patterns derived from RNA sequencing analyses between active period (AP), breeding period (BP), and hibernation period (HP) were investigated. The corresponding results indicated that sperm were observed not only in the ciliated cells within infundibulum and mucosal layer of uterus during BP, but also been detected in the spermatosperm storage tube (SST) in the anterior uterus at HP stage. The further transmission electron microscopy analysis indicated that the differences in the number and activity of the secretory cells likely to attributed to the seasonal variation of microenvironment related to the sperm storage. Based on the RNA-sequecing, 13 147 DEGs related to the Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) and FOXO signalling were identified, including these, the down-regulated ATG12 and BCL2L11 in the HP group may thus constitute an important point of convergence between autophagy and apoptosis involving the FOXO1 pathway. The genes involved in the PPARs pathway might modulate the immune response and thereby contribute to prolong the life span of stored spermatozoa in Alligator sinensis. The outcomes of this study provide fundamental insights into the mechanism of sperm storage in A. sinensis.
Keywords: Chinese alligator, fertility, microscopy, oviduct, reproductive cycles, RNA sequencing, sperm storage, ultrastructure.
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