ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Livestock Genomics
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1594040
This article is part of the Research TopicGenomic Insights into Sheep and Goat Breeding Efficiency - Volume IIView all 4 articles
Transcriptome sequencing of sheep hypothalamic tissue reveals the regulatory role of lncRNA in the mechanism of pubertal estrus initiation
Provisionally accepted
- College of Animal Science and Technology, Tarim University, Aral, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Pubertal estrus in sheep is crucial for reproductive maturation, with the hypothalamus playing a key role in its regulation. While long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) have gained attention for their involvement in the nervous system, their specific role in regulating pubertal estrus remains unclear. This study performed transcriptome sequencing on hypothalamic tissues from Dolang sheep at prepubertal, pubertal, and post-pubertal stages, identifying 1589 lncRNAs, including 848 known and 741 novel lncRNAs, with intergenic lncRNAs being most abundant. The majority of lncRNAs were 200-2000 nucleotides in length and contained 2-5 exons. A total of 129 differentially expressed lncRNAs were identified, with the highest differential expression between puberty and post-puberty. Cis-regulation analysis suggested lncRNAs regulate genes involved in estrogen biosynthesis, dopamine transport, glycolipid metabolism, and nervous system development. lncRNAs may also impact reproductive hormone signaling, including estrogen signaling pathwaygrowth hormone (GH) and gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) pathways, influencing growth, gonadal development, and sex hormone production. Specifically, ceRNA relationships such as LOC101105119-oar-miR-106b-GNAQ and LOC105607217-oar-miR-370-3p-PRKCA were validated. Overall, this study demonstrates that lncRNAs regulate pubertal estrus initiation through ceRNA networks (e.g., LOC101105119-miR-106b-GNAQ) and hormone signaling, particularly the GnRH pathway, offering potential targets for sheep breeding.
Keywords: lncRNA, Estrus initiation, Hypothalamic tissue, Puberty, Dolang sheep
Received: 26 Mar 2025; Accepted: 14 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xuan, Peng, Wang, Li, Huang, Sun, Zhu, Gu and Xing. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Rong Xuan, College of Animal Science and Technology, Tarim University, Aral, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.