title: Identification of MicroRNAs in Zebrafish Spermatozoa.
abstract: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) participate in almost all biological processes. Plenty of evidences show that some testis- or spermatozoa-specific miRNAs play crucial roles in the process of gonad and germ cell development. In this study, the spermatozoa miRNA profiles were investigated through a combination of illumina deep sequencing and bioinformatics analysis in zebrafish. Deep sequencing of small RNAs yielded 11,820,680 clean reads. By mapping to the zebrafish genome, we identified 400 novel and 204 known miRNAs that could be grouped into 104 families. Furthermore, we selected the six highest expressions of known miRNAs to detect their expression patterns in different tissues by stem-loop quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. We found that among the six miRNAs, dre-miR-202-5p displayed specific and high expression in zebrafish spermatozoa and testis. Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis indicated that dre-miR-202-5p was predominantly expressed in all kind of germ cells at different spermatogenetic stages, including spermatogonia and spermatozoa, but barely expressed in the germ cells in the ovary. This sex-biased expression pattern suggests that dre-miR-202-5p might be related to spermatogenesis and the functioning of spermatozoa. The identification of miRNAs in zebrafish spermatozoa and germ cells offers new insights into the spermatogenesis and spermatozoa in the teleost and other vertebrates.
authors.affiliation: 1 School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou, China .|2 Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Resources and Coastal Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou, China .|3 South China Sea Bio-Resource Exploitation and Utilization Collaborative Innovation Center, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou, China .
authors.forename: Kun-Tong
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.affiliation: 1 School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou, China .|2 Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Resources and Coastal Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou, China .|3 South China Sea Bio-Resource Exploitation and Utilization Collaborative Innovation Center, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou, China .
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: 1 School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou, China .|2 Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Resources and Coastal Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou, China .|3 South China Sea Bio-Resource Exploitation and Utilization Collaborative Innovation Center, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou, China .
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.affiliation: 1 School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou, China .|2 Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Resources and Coastal Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou, China .|3 South China Sea Bio-Resource Exploitation and Utilization Collaborative Innovation Center, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou, China .
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: 1 School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou, China .|2 Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Resources and Coastal Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou, China .|3 South China Sea Bio-Resource Exploitation and Utilization Collaborative Innovation Center, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou, China .
authors.forename: Yilin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jin
authors.affiliation: 4 Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore , Singapore, Singapore .
authors.forename: Yongming
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: 1 School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou, China .|2 Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Resources and Coastal Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou, China .
authors.forename: Jieying
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: 4 Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore , Singapore, Singapore .
authors.forename: Yunhan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.affiliation: 1 School of Marine Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou, China .|2 Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Marine Resources and Coastal Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou, China .|3 South China Sea Bio-Resource Exploitation and Utilization Collaborative Innovation Center, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou, China .
authors.forename: Meisheng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D008297:Male; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000378:metabolism*; D013737:Testis / Q000378:metabolism; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D035683:MicroRNAs