Expression analysis of SLC gene family in epithelial cells of different segments of yak epididymis

【Objective】The regulation and functional differences of solute carrier（SLC）protein in different segments of epididymis were revealed，and the expression of SLC gene family in yak epididymis was clarified to provide theoretical basis for improving the breeding performance of yaks.【Method】A total of 54 differentially expressed genes（DEGs）of SLC gene family were screened from the transcriptome data of epithelial cells of yak epididymis caput，corpus，and cauda epithelial cells. Key genes were screened by association network analysis，and then real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR was used to detect the expression of DEGs in epithelial cells of different segments of yak epididymis.【Result】In the comparison between caput vs corpus，18 DEGs including SLC2A9，SLC8A1 and SLC29A1 were up-regulated，while 24 DEGs including SLC41A2，SLC40A1 and SLC26A3 were down-regulated. In the caput vs cauda，17 DEGs including SLC16A2，SLC7A1 and SLC2A9 were up-regulated，while 15 DEGs including SLC39A4，SLC26A3 and SLC40A1 were down-regulated. For the corpus vs cauda，6 DEGs including SLC5A3，SLC16A2 and SLC46A3 were up-regulated，while 6 DEGs including SLC25A20，SLC20A2 and SLC27A1 were down-regulated. A total of 13 key genes were selected through association network analysis：SLC41A2，SLC7A8，SLC26A3，SLC39A11，SLC30A4，SLC1A1，SLC7A2， SLCO₂A1，SLC6A2，SLC22A17，SLC5A5，SLC22A18 and SLC30A4. Among them，SLC26A3 gene was the key gene in both the caput vs corpus and caput vs cauda groups. SLC26A3 gene exhibited significantly higher expression in the caput compared to the corpus and cauda segments（P<0.05）. The SLC gene family of yak epididymis was the most abundant in mineral absorption pathway，and SLC26A3 gene was involved in 2 signaling pathways：mineral absorption and pancreatic secretion.【Conclusion】Thirteen regulatory genes of SLC gene family are selected from epithelial cells of different segments of yak epididymis，among which SLC26A3 gene is the common key gene of caput vs corpus and caput vs cauda groups，which influences the reproductive ability of male yaks by regulating mineral absorption.