Fig 1.
Illustration of the experimental design for semen collection, processing and analyses (created with BioRender.com).
Table 1.
Sperm quality variables in Italian chicken breeders including Bionda Piemontese (BP, N = 13), Bianca di Saluzzo (BS, N = 11), Mericanel della Brianza (MB, N = 8), Pepoi (Pe, N = 15), and Robusta Maculata (RM, N = 12) evaluated weekley over a two months period. Values are Means ± SE.
Fig 2.
Shotgun label-free quantitative proteomic analysis.
A) Overview of the workflow applied for the analysis of sperm proteome from Bionda Piemontese (BP), Bianca di Saluzzo (BS), Mericanel della Brianza (MB), Pepoi (Pe) and Robusta Maculata (RM) chicken breeds. B) Venn diagram of the proteins identified in the five data sets. The proteomic analysis allowed to identify proteins common to all samples, as well as proteins exclusively detected in each data set (indicated in bold). The term PrG = Protein Group. C) Principal Component Analysis (PCA).
Table 2.
Functional analysis by ClueGo-Reactome of the proteins exclusively present in the sperm of five Italian chicken breeds.
Table 3.
Lists of proteins identified in the present study that have been previously reported from human, chicken, bovine or other species, namely mouse, Drosophila, and in vitro experiments.
Table 4.
Clustering of sperm proteomes based on semen quality parameters in Italian chicken breeds.
Table 5.
Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) of Sperm Quality-Associated Proteins Across Breeds.
Fig 3.
Network analysis by String of the proteins involved in A) the HSP90 chaperone cycle for the steroid hormone receptors (SHR) pathway. Cytoskeletal and microtubule-associated proteins are indicated in red and yellow, respectively; B) and C) the TP53 transcriptional regulation pathway. Proteins involved in complex IV of cellular respiration are indicated in cyan, while those involved in the regulation of intracellular calcium levels are shown in green. Line thickness indicates the strength of data support. The minimum required interaction score is medium (0.4), hiding disconnected nodes.