Description
In many parts of the US, selenium (Se)-deficient soils dictate the necessity of supplementing this trace mineral directly to the diet of cattle, with the form of Se supplied known to affect tissue-level gene expression profiles and presumably function. Because a deficiency of Se will reduce fertility, including reduced biosynthesis of testosterone by the testis and an increased frequency of abnormalities in mature spermatozoa, we hypothesized that the form of Se supplemented to cows during gestation would affect the transcriptome of the neonatal bull calf testis. Microarray analysis using the Bovine gene 1.0 ST array (GeneChip; Affymetrix, Inc., Santa Clara, CA) was conducted to determine whether gestational form of supplemental Se affected gene expression profiles in the testis. GeneChip transcript annotations were last updated in January 2013 using the annotation update release 33 from the NetAffx annotation database.