Figure 3. Expression patterns of PIM1 and other 6 gene families. (A) Heatmap of expression profiles of chicken and tree sparrow PIM genes in different tissues. The scale bar on the right represents the log10-transformed TMM values. (B) Heatmap of expression profiles of BY and LJX tree sparrow PIMgenes in testis (left panel). The colored squares on the left represent the PIM3 (green) and two subgroups of PIM1 (red for subgroup I and blue for subgroup II). All transcripts (right top panel) in testis and PIM1 copy number (right bottom panel) show no difference between BY and LJX population, when PIM1 expression level is significantly higher in BY tree sparrow testis (right middle panel). (C) Inhibition experiment protocol for the PIM1 inhibitor treatment group and control group (left panel). Both sperm traits (middle panel) and PIM1 expression level (right panel) show no difference between control and inhibitor group. P values are calculated with Student’s t-test. “NS.” denotes P> 0.05, “*” denotes 0.01 < P < 0.05, “**” denotes 0.001 < P < 0.01 and “***” denotes P < 0.001.