Effect of dietary Astragalus Polysaccharide supplements on testicular piRNA expression profiles of breeding cocks

Astragalus Polysaccharide (APS), as the main active ingredient of Astragalus membranaceus, has extensive biological activities related to immune, metabolic, and anti-oxidative regulatory processes. Previous studies have proven that piRNAs could play important roles in genital gland. This study aimed to identify the differentially expressed piRNAs in chicken testes in response to dietary APS supplements and further evaluate the roles of these piRNAs related to the effect of dietary APS supplements on testicular changes. We generated piRNA expression profiles of testes from breeding cocks fed without or with extra APS. As results, there were 42 up-regulated and 86 down-regulated piRNAs in APS group, compared with the control group meeting the criteria of P<0.05 and fold change <0.67 or fold change >1.5. The potential targets were subsequently annotated against the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes databases. The results revealed that dietary APS supplements could regulate tight junction pathways by regulating the piRNA expression profiles, which were related to the regulation of a better testicular condition for spermatogenesis. Our results provided a novel insight into the effect of dietary APS supplements on testicular piRNA expression profiles and its potential roles in testicular condition regulation.