The analysis of gene expression on fertility decline in Caenorhabditis elegans after the treatment with 5-fluorouracil

Background: 5-fluorouracil could lead to a decline in fertility in caenorhabditis elegans. the aim of this study was to describe the mechanisms underlying such an altered fertility phenotype and to illustrate the specific genes and path-ways that are involved in the related phenotypic changes in c. elegans. methods: we isolated total rna from the samples and used a new method called digital gene expression (dge),which can rapidly identify genes with altered transcript levels. the random genes were confirmed by real-time rt-pcr. results: we analyzed the results of two methods to draw conclusions based on a comparison between c. elegans and other harmful parasites. compared with controls,1147 genes were up-regulated,and 1067 were down-regulated. overall,101 up-regulated genes had a log2 ratio higher than 8,whereas the log2 ratio of 141 down-regulated genes was higher than 8. after mapping to the reference database,4 pathways were confirmed to be involved in this phe-nomenon,with statistically significant participation from 19 genes. conclusion: for the first time,the transcript sequence of 5-fu-treated worms and controls was detected. we found that 4 possible pathways,i.e.,ecm-receptor interaction pathway,tgf-beta signaling pathway,focal adhesion and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy,may be involved in the number decline in the embryos of c. elegans. specifically,the ecm-receptor interaction pathway and focal adhesion may be very important pathways that alter the reproduction of c. elegans. © 2015,iranian journal of public health. all rights reserved.