BACKGROUND Reptiles are phylogenically important group of organisms as mammals have evolved from them. Wall lizard testis exhibits clearly distinct morphology during various phases of a reproductive cycle making them an interesting model to study regulation of spermatogenesis. Studies on reptile spermatogenesis are negligible hence this study will prove to be an important resource. METHODOLOG...

Lanosterol 14alpha-demethylase (CYP51) produces follicular fluid meiosis-activating sterol (FF-MAS), which is converted further to testis meiosis-activating sterol (T-MAS). MAS are intermediates in the cholesterol biosynthetic pathway, with the ability to trigger resumption of oocyte meiosis in vitro. In contrast to the liver, where pre- and post-MAS genes are upregulated coordinately at the le...

Cancer-testis antigens are tumour antigens with limited expression in male germ cells in the testis, ovary and trophoblasts. Recently, their expression has been seen in different types of tumours. Due to the existence of the blood-testis barrier, testis is considered an immune-privileged site; and testis-specific genes, if expressed in cancers, can be immunogenic. For this reason, cancertestis ...

Genes expressed in testes are critical to male reproductive success, affecting spermatogenesis, sperm competition, and sperm-egg interaction. Comparing the evolution of testis proteins at different taxonomic levels can reveal which genes and functional classes are targets of natural and sexual selection and whether the same genes are targets among taxa. Here we examine the evolution of testis-e...

To identify putative biomarkers of porcine spermatogonial stem cells (pSSCs), total RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) analysis was performed on 5- and 180-day-old porcine testes and on pSSC colonies that were established under low temperature culture conditions as reported previously. In total, 10,184 genes were selected using Cufflink software, followed by a logarithm and quantile normalization of the ...

Objective: Unequal usage of synonymous codons encoding an amino acid is termed as codon usage bias. Synonymous codon usage bias is an inevitable phenomenon in organismic taxa across the three domains of life, i.e. plants, animals and microbes. Here we report the codon usage pattern in human testis-specific genes found in Y chromosome. Testis-specific genes are associated with several dysfunctio...

Temperature has crucial effects on gonadal development and reproduction of abalone. To understand the impact thermal stress molecular physiological processes triggering regulation reproduction, changes in mRNA expression neuroendocrine genes encoding two abalone gonadotropin-releasing hormone ( Hdh-GnRH , Hdh-GnRH-like peptide ), GnRH receptor Hdh-GnRH-R Hdh-APGWamide serotonin 5-HT hdh a heat ...

BACKGROUND Catfish has a male-heterogametic (XY) sex determination system, but genes involved in gonadogenesis, spermatogenesis, testicular determination, and sex determination are poorly understood. As a first step of understanding the transcriptome of the testis, here, we conducted RNA-Seq analysis using high throughput Illumina sequencing. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS A total of 269.6 mi...

In Drosophila melanogaster, there is an excess of genes duplicated by retroposition from the X chromosome to the autosomes. Most of those retrogenes that originated on the X chromosome have testis expression pattern. These observations could be explained by natural selection favoring genes that avoided spermatogenesis X inactivation or by sexual antagonistic effects favoring the fixation of mal...

The basal transcription machinery is responsible for initiating transcription at core promoters. During metazoan evolution, its components have expanded in number and diversified to increase the complexity of transcriptional regulation in tissues and developmental stages. To explore the evolutionary events and forces underlying this diversification, we analyzed the evolution of the Drosophila t...