Transcriptomic analysis of reproductive damage in the epididymis of male Kunming mice induced by chronic infection of Toxoplasma gondii PRU strain

This work was supported, in part, by grants from the National Key Research and Development Programme of China (2017YFD0501305), National Natural Science Foundation of China (31972707), Major Scientific Research Projects (Characteristic Innovation) of Guangdong Province (2017KTSCX018), the Key Research and Development Programme of Guangdong Province (2019B020218004), the Guangzhou Zoo Project (h2016141), the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province (2019A1515011534, 2016A030313396), and Huizhou Science and Technology Projects (2015B040009001).According to results of a bioinformatics analysis, Gene Ontology (GO) function is divided into three categories: Cellular component, molecular function and biological process. Upon performing GO analysis, we found that some DEGs correlated with an integral part of membrane, protein complex, cell surface, ATP binding, immune system process, signal transduction and metabolic process which are responsible for the epididymal injury. DEGs were mapped to 101 unique KEGG pathways. Pathways such as cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction, glycolysis/gluconeogenesis and apoptosis are closely related to sperm quality. Moreover, Tnfsf10 and spata18 can damage the mitochondria in sperm, which decreases sperm motility and morphology. Conclusions: We sequenced the reproductive system of male mice chronically infected with T. gondii, which provides a new direction for research into male sterility caused by Toxoplasma infection. This work provides valuable information and a comprehensive database for future studies of the interaction between T. gondii infection and the male reproductive system