title: Effect of dietary Astragalus Polysaccharide supplements on testicular miRNA expression profiles and enzymatic changes of breeder cocks.
abstract: Astragalus Polysaccharide (APS) is an important feed additive due to its immunomodulatory functions. Previous studies have proven that miRNAs play important roles in posttranscriptional gene regulation. Our goals were to identify differentially expressed miRNAs in testes in responses to APS dietary supplements and to find the effects of APS on breeder cock testes. We measured several enzymatic activities in testes and sperm samples and further generated miRNA expression profiles of testes from breeder cocks fed with control diets and extra APS. As a result, we found APS could increase testicular functional activities of marker enzymes. Meanwhile, there were 16 up-regulated and 17 down-regulated miRNAs in APS group, compared with the control group meeting the criteria of P-values < 0.05. Meanwhile, twelve differentially expressed miRNAs were validated by Mir-XTM miRNA RT-qPCR. Further GO and KEGG analyses of target genes for differentially expressed miRNAs revealed that some miRNAs may be involved in testicular nutrient metabolisms and NK cell mediated cytotoxicity pathway. Moreover, the effect of dietary APS supplements on NK cell mediated cytotoxicity pathway was also validated by RT-qPCR. Our results provided a novel insight into the effect of dietary APS supplements on testicular miRNA expression profiles and enzymatic changes of breeder cocks.
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China.
authors.forename: Shengru
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China.
authors.forename: Xiaochun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China.
authors.forename: Yulong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China.
authors.forename: Xinyu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lei
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China.
authors.forename: Junhu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China.
authors.forename: Xiaojun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D027883:Astragalus Plant / Q000737:chemistry*; D002645:Chickens; D003602:Cytotoxicity, Immunologic; D019587:Dietary Supplements; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000187:drug effects*; D007155:Immunologic Factors / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000302:isolation & purification; D007694:Killer Cells, Natural / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000032:analysis*; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013737:Testis / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000201:enzymology
chemical_list: D007155:Immunologic Factors; D035683:MicroRNAs; D011134:Polysaccharides