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UBE2I stimulates female gonadal differentiation in chicken (Gallus gallus) embryos
JIN Kai, ZHOU Jing, ZUO Qi-sheng, LI Jian-cheng, Jiuzhou SONG, ZHANG Ya-ni, CHANG Guo-bing, CHEN Guo-hong, LI Bi-chun
2021, 20 (11): 2986-2994.   DOI: 10.1016/S2095-3119(20)63486-4
Abstract112)      PDF in ScienceDirect      
Without known analogous sex-determining factors like SRY (sex determining region Y) in mammals, the chicken (Gallus gallus) sex determination mechanism still remains unclear, which highly restricts the biological research on chicken development and poultry single-sex reproduction.  Here we not only characterized a new female-biased gene UBE2I and identified the expression pattern by qRT-PCR, but also described the functional role of UBE2I in the gonadal development of chicken embryos.  Results showed that UBE2I exhibited a female-biased expression pattern in the early stage of PGCs (primordial germ cells) in embryonic gonads and robust expression in ovaries of newborn chickens.  Most importantly, we successfully developed an effective method to interfere or overexpress UBE2I in chicken embryos through the intravascular injection.  The qRT-PCR analysis showed that the sex-related genes (FOXL2, CYP19A1 and HINTW) in females were upregulated (P<0.05) under the overexpression of UBE2I and the sex-related genes (SOX9, DMRT1 and WT1) in females were downregulated (P<0.05) after interfering UBE2I.  Furthermore, the change of UBE2I expression was associated with the level of estradiol and its receptors (AR and ESR), which suggests that UBE2I is necessary to initiate the female-specific development in chickens.  In conclusion, this work demonstrates that UBE2I is a crucial sex differentiation-related gene in the embryonic development of chickens, which provides insights for further understanding the mechanism of sex determination in chickens.
 
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The expression of Lin28B was co-regulated by H3K4me2 and Wnt5a/β-catenin/TCF7L2
ZHANG Ya-ni, HU Cai, WANG Ying-jie, ZUO Qi-sheng, LI Bi-chun
2020, 19 (12): 3054-3064.   DOI: 10.1016/S2095-3119(20)63441-4
Abstract121)      PDF in ScienceDirect      
Lin28A and Lin28B are homologous RNA-binding proteins that participate in the development of primordial germ cells.  The mechanisms underlying expression and regulation of Lin28A have been well documented, but such information for Lin28B is limited.  In this study, a fragment of the Lin28B promoter was cloned, the pEGFP-pLin28B vector was constructed.  DF-1 chicken fibroblasts were transfected and the expression of green fluorescent protein (GFP) was measured.  Furtherly, Lin28B promoter of different lengths fragments was cloned using the chromosome-walking method and the fragments were ligated into the PGL3-Basic vector, and transfected into DF-1 cells.  Results of dual-luciferase reporter assay showed that the core of the Lin28B promoter was included in the sequence from –1 431 to –1 034 bp.  The binding sites of the transcription factor TCF7L2 was showed within this sequence by bioinformatics analysis.  The promoter activity of Lin28B was downregulated (P<0.05) when the TCF7L2 binding site was mutated.  Further experiments suggested that Lin28B promoter activity responded to the activation or inhibition of Wnt signaling.  Results of chromatin immunoprecipitation and quantitative PCR showed that β-catenin-TCF7L2 may be enriched in the Lin28B promoter core area.  In vivo and in vitro activation or inhibition of Wnt signaling significantly up- or down-regulated (P<0.05) Lin28B expression.  H3K4me2 enriched in the promoter of Lin28B, which affected the regulation of Wnt signaling to Lin28B.  In conclusion, our results showed that H3K4me2 and Wnt5a/β-catenin/TCF7L2 were the positive regulators of Lin28B expression.  Findings of this study may lay a theoretical foundation for illuminating the mechanism underlying Lin28B expression.
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Study on the role of JAK/STAT signaling pathway during chicken spermatogonial stem cells generation based on RNA-Seq
ZHANG Lei, ZUO Qi-sheng, LI Dong, LIAN Chao, Kamel E Ahmed, TANG Bei-bei, SONG Jiu-zhou, ZHANG Ya-ni, LI Bi-chun
2015, 14 (5): 939-948.   DOI: 10.1016/S2095-3119(14)60938-2
Abstract2293)      PDF in ScienceDirect      
Spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) form the foundation for spermatogenesis and sustain male fertility. To explore the regulatory mechanisms of chicken SSCs generation, we obtained highly purified chicken embryonic stem cells (ESCs), primordial germ cells (PGCs) and SSCs by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS). High-throughput analysis methods (RNA-Seq) were used to sequence the transcriptome level of these cells. Gene ontology and Kyoto encyclopedia of genes and genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment were used to analyze RNA-Seq results. BMP4 was used to induce chicken ESCs differentiation to SSCs-like cells in vitro. The quantitative real-time (qRT)-PCR was used to detect the expression changes of the key genes. The results showed that 22 relevant critical pathways were found by RNA-Seq, one of them was the Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK/STAT) signaling pathway. Total of 103 related genes were detected in this pathway. Protein-protein interactions analysis found that 87 proteins were significantly related to 19 key proteins in this pathway. These 87 proteins were enriched in 21 biological processes and 18 signaling pathways. Moreover, during the differentiation of chicken ESCs to SSCs-like cells induced by BMP4 in vitro, JAK2 and STAT3 were activated. The qRT-PCR results showed that the expression trends of JAK2 and STAT3 were basically the same as in vivo. We concluded that JAK/STAT signaling pathway plays an important role in the process of chicken SSCs generation both in vivo and in vitro; it may achieve its function through multiple biological processes and other related pathways.
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