Description
The giant mole-rat (Fukomys mechowii, GMR) is one of the few species of African mole-rats wherein a queen ovulates and breeds while ovulation in other females is suppressed. Their social structure combined with the unusually long fertility of both queens and non-breeders thus make female GMRs uniquely suitable systems for understanding how aging, reproductive maturity and ovulation frequency affect fertility in mammals. For this study, we examine whether differences in age and breeding status can also be observed at the transcriptomic level in GMR oocytes. Using our genome assembly, gene annotation and curated transposable element (TE) library for GMR, we compared gene and TE expression between young non-breeding, aged non-breeding and aged breeding females. We identified 260 and 27 differentially expressed genes and TE subfamilies, respectively, the majority of the latter being endogenous retroviruses and LINEs. Oocytes from young non-breeding and aged breeding individuals have more similar expression profiles, while oocytes from aged non-breeders show generally lower gene and TE expression. We will discuss how expression patterns as well as the functions and genomic position of the differentially expressed genes and TEs could reflect and contribute to oocyte quality, reproductive longevity and cooperative breeding.
