MA Transcriptome-wide Map of CircRNAs Identified in the Testis of Normal and AZ-treated Xenopus Laevis

Overview

Journal Genes Environ

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Environmental Health

Date 2023 Sep 1

PMID 37658417

Authors

Xin Zhang

Linlin Sai

Weiliang Zhang

Xingzheng Kan

Qiang Jia

Cunxiang Bo

Wenhui Yin

Hua Shao

Mingming Han

Cheng Peng

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Evidence showed that N-methyladenosine (mA) is strongly associated with male germline development. However, the role of mA methylation on circRNAs in amphibians remains unknown. In this study, we conducted mA sequencing analysis to explore the mA transcriptome-wide profile of circRNAs in testis tissues of Xenopus laevis (X. laevis) with and without treatment with 100 µg/L atrazine (AZ).

Results: The analysis showed that mA modification of circRNAs enriched in sense overlapping in testes of X. laevis. We identified the differential mA modification sites within circRNAs in testes of AZ-exposed X. laevis and compared that with animals from control group. The results showed that a total of 1507 methylated mA sites was induced by AZ (760 up-methylated and 747 down-methylated). The cross-analysis exhibited a negative correlation of differentially methylated mA peaks and circRNAs expression level. The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis indicated that 20 key pathways may be involved in the mechanism of testis damage of AZ-exposed X. laevis.

Conclusions: These findings indicated that differentially mA-methylated circRNAs may play important roles in abnormal testis development of AZ-exposed X. laevis. This study is the first report about a map of mA modification of circRNAs in male X. laevis and provides a basis for further studying on the function and mechanism of mA methylation of circRNAs in the testis development of amphibian.

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