Single-cell transcriptome analysis and in vitro differentiation of testicular cells reveal novel insights into male sterility of the interspecific hybrid cattle-yak

BACKGROUND: Interspecific hybridization plays vital roles in enriching animal diversity, while male hybrid sterility (MHS) of the offspring commonly suffered from spermatogenic arrest constitutes the postzygotic reproductive isolation. Cattle-yak, the hybrid offspring of cattle (Bos taurus) and yak (Bos grunniens) can serve as an ideal MHS animal model. Although meiotic arrest was found to contribute to MHS of cattle-yak, yet the cellular characteristics and developmental potentials of male germline cell in pubertal cattle-yak remain to be systematically investigated. RESULTS: Single-cell RNA-seq analysis of germline and niche cell types in pubertal testis of cattle-yak and yak indicated that dynamic gene expression of developmental germ cells was terminated at late primary spermatocyte (meiotic arrest) and abnormal components of niche cell in pubertal cattle-yak. Further in vitro proliferation and differentially expressed gene (DEG) analysis of specific type of cells revealed that undifferentiated spermatogonia of cattle-yak exhibited defects in viability and proliferation/differentiation potentials. CONCLUSION: Comparative scRNA-seq and in vitro proliferation analysis of testicular cells indicated that not only meiotic arrest contributed to MHS of cattle-yak. Spermatogenic arrest of cattle-yak may originate from the differentiation stage of undifferentiated spermatogonia and niche cells of cattle-yak may provide an adverse microenvironment for spermatogenesis. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12864-023-09251-2.