Specific expression and alternative splicing of mouse genes during spermatogenesis

Alternative splicing plays a significant role in the development and producing proteome diversity, while there are more spliced RNAs in testis compared to other tissues. However, there is still a lack of systematic analysis of RNA alternative splicing in spermatogenesis. Here, we constructed the landscape of RNA alternative splicing during mouse spermatogenesis based on integrated RNA-seq datasets. Our results presented several novel alternative splicing genes (Eif2s3y, Erdr1 Uty and Zfy1) in the Y chromosome with specific expression pattern. Remarkably, alternative splicing genes were grouped into co-expression networks involved in microtubule cytoskeleton organization and posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression, indicating the potential pathway to germ cell generation. Furthermore, based on the co-expression networks, we identified Atxn2l as a potential key gene in spermatogenesis, which presented dynamic expression pattern in different alternative splicing types. Ultimately, we proposed splicing regulatory networks for the understanding of novel and innovative alternative splicing regulation mechanism during spermatogenesis. Summary, our research processed a systematic analysis of RNA alternative splicing and provided some novel splicing genes related to spermatogenesis.