Functional and molecular features of the Id4+ germline stem cell population in mouse testes

Frieda Chan; Melissa J. Oatley; Amy V. Kaucher; Qi-En Yang; Charles J. Bieberich; Cooduvalli S. Shashikant; Jon M. Oatley

doi:10.1101/gad.240465.114

Functional and molecular features of the Id4⁺ germline stem cell population in mouse testes

¹School of Molecular Biosciences, Center for Reproductive Biology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington 99164, USA;
²Department of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland at Baltimore County, Baltimore, Maryland 21250, USA;
³Department of Animal Science, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA

Abstract

The maintenance of cycling cell lineages relies on undifferentiated subpopulations consisting of stem and progenitor pools. Features that delineate these cell types are undefined for many lineages, including spermatogenesis, which is supported by an undifferentiated spermatogonial population. Here, we generated a transgenic mouse line in which spermatogonial stem cells are marked by expression of an inhibitor of differentiation 4 (Id4)-green fluorescent protein (Gfp) transgene. We found that Id4-Gfp⁺ cells exist primarily as a subset of the type A_single pool, and their frequency is greatest in neonatal development and then decreases in proportion during establishment of the spermatogenic lineage, eventually comprising ∼2% of the undifferentiated spermatogonial population in adulthood. RNA sequencing analysis revealed that expression of 11 and 25 genes is unique for the Id4-Gfp⁺/stem cell and Id4-Gfp⁻/progenitor fractions, respectively. Collectively, these findings provide the first definitive evidence that stem cells exist as a rare subset of the A_single pool and reveal transcriptome features distinguishing stem cell and progenitor states within the mammalian male germline.

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Footnotes

↵4 Corresponding author

E-mail joatley{at}vetmed.wsu.edu
Supplemental material is available for this article.
Article is online at http://www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gad.240465.114.

Received February 21, 2014.
Accepted May 14, 2014.

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