RNA-Seq Analysis of Ovarian Transcriptome in Recipient Rats after Fecal Microbiota Transplantation from Gypenosides-Treated or PCOS-Model Donors
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common endocrine and metabolic disorder. Although gut microbiota dysbiosis has been implicated in PCOS, causal evidence demonstrating that microbiota modulation alone can improve or induce ovarian dysfunction remains limited. In this study, we performed a bidirectional fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) experiment using a letrozole-induced PCOS rat model. Specifically, normal recipient rats were transplanted with PCOS-model donor microbiota (FMT-PCOS group) to test whether PCOS-associated microbiota could transfer disease traits, while PCOS recipient rats were transplanted with GPs-conditioned donor microbiota (FMT-GPs group) to test whether GPs-reprogrammed microbiota could transfer therapeutic benefits. All recipient rats were pretreated with an antibiotic cocktail to deplete endogenous gut microbiota before FMT. Ovarian tissues were collected from both groups of recipient rats (n = 6 per group). Total RNA was extracted and subjected to high-throughput RNA-sequencing. The submitted dataset comprises raw RNA-Seq files (FASTQ format) and sample metadata from 12 samples (6 per group). The aims of this transcriptomic analysis are to: 1) identify differentially expressed genes between FMT-GPs and FMT-PCOS recipient rats; 2) elucidate the molecular pathways (e.g., inflammation, oxidative stress, steroidogenesis) through which GPs-reprogrammed microbiota improves ovarian function and PCOS-associated microbiota induces dysfunction; and 3) provide causal transcriptomic evidence supporting the "gut microbiota-ovary" axis in PCOS.