Fig. 5

Bull sperm miRNA content. a Using miRDeep2 software, 2723 miRNAs were identified in bull sperm, including 701 (26%) known and 2022 (74%) predicted miRNAs. b Among known miRNAs, 550 were already described in cattle, 60 in human, 33 in mouse and 58 in other species. c The vast majority (80%) of miRNAs were expressed at low levels (2187 miRNAs expressed below 100 mapped reads on average), and only 53 miRNAs were highly expressed (above 10,000 mapped reads). d Twenty miRNAs account for 75% of the total miRNA mapped reads, including bta-mir-100, which alone accounts for 30% of miRNA expression (40% of the mapped reads for the top twenty miRNAs). (e) miRNA location within several genomic features, including intergenic or genic regions (introns, exons, and other regulatory regions, such as promoter, TSS, TTS, 3p or 5p UTR). Percentages shown on each rightmost “Pie of Pie” chart are expressed relative to the genic miRNAs. (i) Global distribution of sperm miRNAs. (ii) Distribution of known mRNAs; (iii) Distribution of predicted miRNAs