Expression profiles of differentially expressed genes affecting fecundity in goat ovarian tissues

Although RNA-Seq is an effective method for identifying and exploring novel functional genes in mammals, it has rarely been applied to study fertility-related genes in the goat. In this study, RNA-Seq was used to screen the estrus ovaries of uniparous and multiparous Anhui white goats (AWGs). In total, 15,890 genes were identified and 2201 of these were found to be differentially expressed between the genetic libraries from uniparous and multiparous goats. Compared to the uniparous library, 1583 genes were up-regulated and 618 genes were down-regulated in the multiparous library. The FER1L4 gene showed the level of highest up-regulation in the multiparous library, while SRD5A2 expression showed the greatest down-regulation. In order to determine the functions of FER1L4 and SRD5A2 in goats, the expression profiles of the two genes in different tissues from AWGs and Boer goats at diestrus were analyzed by quantitative PCR. FER1L4 and SRD5A2 showed tissue specific expression patterns and were highly expressed in ovaries from both AWGs and Boer goats. FER1L4 was more highly expressed in ovaries from multiparous than uniparous AWGs. In contrast, SRD5A2 was expressed at a lower level in multiparous AWGs. These results indicated that FER1L4 and SRD5A2 may be associated with the high fecundity of AWGs.