GSE137224
Infection with Toxoplasma gondii induces inheritable epigenetic changes in mouse sperm
In this study we sought to analyse if infection with the common human parasite Toxoplasma gondii aftered sperm epigenetics by sequecing small RNA from parasite infected and mock infected mice. Epigenetic changes in sperm is a well described process of inheritanece of paternal environmental experiences to their progeny. Using high throughput Illumina sequencing, we revealed differences between the sperm small RNA profiles of Toxoplasma-infected and control animals . We found 25.88% of small RNAs were differentially expressed after correcting for false discovery rate, of which 9.21% and 16.67% were up- and down-regulated, respectively. Further quantitative analysis revealed enriched small RNA load in our samples and biotypes composition analysis showed a majority tRNA population followed by miRNA and piRNA populations, while the rest contained various other small RNA transcripts.When we looked at miRNA changes between Toxoplasma-infected and control samples, we found that of the total miRNA mapped (585), 174 were differentially expressed in the Toxoplasma-infected group (FDR < 0.05) of which 35 were down- and 75 were up-regulated with a Log2FC < -2 and > 2, respectively. Lastly, using gene enrichment analysis, we identified pathways regulated by small RNA's that are differentially expressed and found that small RNA's targeted distinct biological pathways. Overall design: Sequencing of sperm small RNA from mice injected with PBS control or Toxoplasma. 5 biological replicates in each group,  each consisting of samples pooled from 2 mice.