Across Species Identification of Genes Bridging Neurological and Reproductive Functions in Mammals

However, direct evidence across species remains limited. Here, proteomic and transcriptomic analyses were performed experimentally in Ovis aries and Rattus norvegicus, while transcriptomic datasets from Mus musculus, Macaca mulatta, and Homo sapiens were analyzed in silico.

We identified 8,464 protein-coding genes shared between the brain and sperm/testis and conserved across five species. In rats, 8,444 of these genes were also shared between the brain and the ovary. Functional annotation classified 3,890 genes as associated with both neurological and reproductive functions, and 1,752 as uncharacterized in these contexts, highlighting candidates for future studies on reproductive and neurological disorders.