Multiple facilitated glucose transporters SLC2As are required for normal mouse preimplantation embryo development.

Background: Glucose metabolism is an essential energy source for mammalian preimplantation embryonic development. Therefore, we aimed to analyze the expression of all 12 known glucose transporters (facilitated solute carrier family 2, Slc2a) during early mouse embryo development.

Methods: Gene and protein expression of Slc2a transporters in oocytes and embryos were assessed by the TaqMan gene expression assay and confocal immunofluorescence, respectively.

Genetic structure of six cattle populations revealed by transcriptome-wide SNPs and gene expression.

There are abundant cattle breeds/populations in China, and the systematic discovery of genomic variants is essential for performing the marker assisted selection and conservation of genetic resources. In the present study, we employed whole transcriptome sequencing (RNA-Seq) technology for revealing genetic structure among six Chinese cattle populations according to transcriptome-wide SNPs and gene expression. A total of 68,094 variants consisting of 61,754 SNPs and 6340 InDels were detected and widely distributed among all chromosomes, by which the clear patterns of population structures were revealed.

Another functional frame-shift polymorphism of DEFB126 (rs11467497) associated with male infertility.

DEFB126 rs140685149 mutation was shown to cause sperm dysfunction and subfertility. Indel rs11467497 is another 4-nucleotide frame-shift mutation (151bp upstream of rs140685149) that leads to the premature termination of translation and the expression of peptide truncated at the carboxyl terminus. In the present study, we performed a comprehensive association study to check the contribution of rs140685149 and rs11467497 to male infertility.