附睾中microRNA与雄激素受体的相互调控机制研究

项目名称： 附睾中microRNA与雄激素受体的相互调控机制研究

项目编号： No.31201113

项目类型： 青年科学基金项目

立项/批准年度： 2013

项目学科： 发育生物学与生殖生物学

项目作者： 马武彬

作者单位： 中国科学院上海生命科学研究院

项目金额： 23万元

中文摘要： 附睾是负责精子成熟、储存、保护和运输的重要男性生殖器官，其正常功能的维持依赖于一系列基因严格的时空秩序表达。雄激素通过雄激素受体（AR）靶向众多基因而调控多种生物学过程，其对附睾的发育和生理功能的维持至关重要。虽然雄激素调控附睾mRNA的研究已有大量报道,但其对附睾非编码RNA调控研究仍为空白。而且，AR 作为雄激素作用的中介物质, 其自身表达应该受到严格的调控，但在附睾中，这种调控机制尚不清楚。另一方面，近十多年的研究表明microRNA（miRNA）也可通过靶向成百上千个基因而调控多种生物学过程。然而，附睾中miRNA的研究刚刚起步，而miRNA本身的表达如何被调控的研究未见报道。因此，本课题拟从AR与miRNA的相互调控角度来研究它们自身在附睾中的表达是如何被调控的。此项研究将填补附睾中AR与miRNA自身表达调控机制研究的空白，有助提高人们对附睾基因表达复杂调控网络的认识。

中文关键词： 附睾；雄激素；雄激素受体；非编码RNA；microRNA

英文摘要： Epididymis is an important male reproductive organ responsible for sperm maturation, storage, protection and transport. All these physiological functions depend on the strictly temporal and spatial expression of epididymal genes. Androgens regulate multiple biological processes by targeting numerous genes through binding to androgen receptor (AR), thus they are critical for the development and the physiological functions of epididymis.There are some reports about the regulation of coding genes by androgens, but there is no report of non-coding RNA regulated by androgens in epididymis. Moreover,as the mediator of androgen actions, AR itself should be regulated strictly, but the regulation mechanisms remain unclear in epididymis so far. On the other side, recent ten years studies have shown microRNAs (miRNA), just like transcription factors, play vital roles in modulating a wide variety of biological processes by targeting hundreds of genes. However, the function studies of miRNAs in epididymis are rare and the studies on miRNA itself expression regulation are blank. So, the aims of this project is to investigate the mechanisms by which how AR or miRNA is regulated in epididymis. We will identify those miRNAs regulated by androgen receptor and will investigate which miRNAs can regulate the expression and transcrip

英文关键词： Epididymis；Androgen；Androgen receptor；Non-coding RNA；microRNA