Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 5, 2025
Enhanced Crosslinking Immunoprecipitation eCLIP Method for Efficient Identification of Protein-bound RNA in Mouse Testis
Published on: May 10, 2019
Identification of male infertility-related long non-coding RNAs and their functions based on a competing endogenous
1Department of Obstetrics, Maternal and Child Health Hospital of Zibo City, Shandong Province, China.
Objective:
To identify male infertility-related long non-coding (lnc)RNAs and an lncRNA-related competing endogenous (ce)RNA network.
Methods:
Expression data including 13 normospermic and eight teratozoospermic samples from postmortem donors were downloaded from the GEO database (GSE6872). The limma R package was used to discriminate dysregulated lncRNA and micro (m)RNA profiles. Gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analyses of differentially expressed (DE) mRNAs were performed using the clusterProfiler R package. The ceRNA network of dysregulated genes was visualized by Cytoscape.
Results:
A total of 101 DE lncRNAs and 1722 mRNAs were identified as male infertility-specific RNAs with thresholds of |log2FoldChange| >2.0 and adjusted P-value <0.05. GO and KEGG pathways were analyzed for DE mRNAs. Gene set enrichment analysis revealed that DE genes were enriched in embryonic skeletal system development and cytokine-cytokine receptor interactions. A ceRNA network was constructed with 26 key lncRNAs, 33 microRNAs, and 133 mRNAs. DE lncRNAs in male sterility were mainly associated with transferring phosphorus-containing groups and complexes of histone methyltransferases, methyltransferases, PcG proteins, and serine/threonine protein kinases.
Conclusion:
This provides a novel perspective to study lncRNA-related ceRNA networks in male infertility and assist in identifying new potential biomarkers for diagnostic purposes.
Related Concept Videos
02:39lncRNA - Long Non-coding RNAs
02:39lncRNA - Long Non-coding RNAs
01:23RNA Interference
This process occurs naturally in cells, often through the activity of genomically-encoded microRNAs. Researchers can take advantage of this mechanism by introducing synthetic RNAs to deactivate specific genes for research or therapeutic purposes. For example, RNAi could be used...
02:57piRNA - Piwi-interacting RNAs
02:30siRNA - Small Interfering RNAs
In the cytoplasm, siRNA is processed from a double-stranded RNA, which comes from either endogenous DNA transcription or exogenous sources like a virus. This double-stranded RNA is then cleaved by the...
02:24Ribosome Profiling
Applications of ribosome profiling
Ribosome profiling has many applications, including in vivo monitoring of translation inside a particular organ or tissue type and quantifying new protein synthesis levels.
The technique...