Global differential gene expression in the pituitary gland and the ovaries of pre- and postpubertal Brahman heifers1
Bibliographic record
Abstract
To understand genes, pathways, and networks related to puberty, we characterized the transcriptome of two tissues: the pituitary gland and ovaries. Samples were harvested from pre- and postpubertal Brahman heifers (same age group). Brahman heifers () are older at puberty compared with , a productivity issue. With RNA sequencing, we identified differentially expressed (DEx) genes and important transcription factors (TF) and predicted coexpression networks. The number of DEx genes detected in the pituitary gland was 284 ( < 0.05), and was the most DEx gene (fold change = 4.12, = 0.01). The gene promotes bone mineralization through transforming growth factor-β (TGFβ) signaling. Further studies of the link between bone mineralization and puberty could target . In ovaries, 3,871 genes were DEx ( < 0.05). Four highly DEx genes were noteworthy for their function: (a γ-aminobutyric acid [GABA] transporter), (), and () and its receptor . These genes had higher ovarian expression in postpubertal heifers. The GABA and its receptors and transporters were expressed in the ovaries of many mammals, suggesting a role for this pathway beyond the brain. The pathway has been known to influence the timing of puberty in rats, via modulation of GnRH. The effects of at the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and ovaries have been documented. and its receptors are known factors in the release of GnRH, similar to and GABA, although their roles in ovarian tissue are less clear. Pathways previously related to puberty such as TGFβ signaling ( = 6.71 × 10), Wnt signaling ( = 4.1 × 10), and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) signaling ( = 4.84 × 10) were enriched in our data set. Seven genes were identified as key TF in both tissues: , , , , , , and a novel gene. An ovarian subnetwork created with TF and significant ovarian DEx genes revealed five zinc fingers as regulators: , , , , and . Recent work of hypothalamic gene expression also pointed to zinc fingers as TF for bovine puberty. Although some zinc fingers may be ubiquitously expressed, the identification of DEx genes in common across tissues points to key regulators of puberty. The hypothalamus and pituitary gland had eight DEx genes in common. The hypothalamus and ovaries had 89 DEx genes in common. The pituitary gland and ovaries had 48 DEx genes in common. Our study confirmed the complexity of puberty and suggested further investigation on genes that code zinc fingers.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".