Fig. 2

Histology and transcriptome dynamics in fresh testicular tissue of adult and juvenile domestic cats. A Histology of testicular tissue samples used for transcriptome analysis; AF6 represents the histology of adult samples. Here and further, sample IDs represent age (A, adult; J, juvenile), tissue condition (F, fresh) and animal (1 to 10). Sg, spermatogonia; Sc, spermatocytes; Sd, round spermatids, Sz, spermatozoa. Scale bar: 50 μm. B Heatmap of one-way hierarchical clustering analysis (Euclidean method, complete linkage) using Z-score for RLE normalized values of all genes expressed in testicular tissue from adult and juvenile cats. C Volcano plot showing differentially expressed genes in adult vs. juvenile samples (Wald test, adjusted p-value < 0.05, absolute fold change > 2). D Principal component analysis plot representing variation in samples from adult and juvenile cats. E Venn diagram of differentially expressed genes from 3 comparison pairs: Adult, Late Juvenile (JF1 and JF2) and Early Juvenile (JF3, JF4 and JF5); Wald test, adjusted p-value < 0.05, absolute fold change > 2. F Heatmap of one-way hierarchical clustering analysis (Euclidean method, complete linkage) using Z-score for RLE normalized values of selected differentially expressed cell markers. Cell markers have been organized to mark more differentiated germ cell populations as they move from the top to the bottom rows. * - differentially expressed in adult vs. late juvenile; ^ - differentially expressed in late vs. early juvenile