You are here:
DEFINING THE SPERMATOZOA RNA FINGERPRINT FOR THE NORMAL FERTILE MALE
Citation:
Ostermeier, G. C., D J. Dix, D. Miller, AND S. A. Krawetz. DEFINING THE SPERMATOZOA RNA FINGERPRINT FOR THE NORMAL FERTILE MALE. Presented at Great Lakes Mammalian Development Meeting, Toronto, ON, CANADA, April 19 - 21, 2001.
Description:
Defining the spermatozoa RNA fingerprint for the normal fertile male
G. Charles Ostermeier1, David Dix2, David Miller3, and Stephen A. Krawetz1
1Departments of Ob/Gyn, CMMG & ISC, Wayne State University, USA.
2Reproductive Toxicology Division, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, USA.
3Reproductive Biology Group, University of Leeds, UK.
Approximately 1 in 6 couples will experience difficulty in conceiving a
child. In at least half of these cases, male-factor infertility is the
cause. Although chromosomal deletions and several single-gene defects have been observed, the cause of over 75% of the cases of non-obstructive azoospermia and oligozoospermia remain largely unknown. Several studies from this and other laboratories have shown that sperm contain a complex repertoire of mRNAs. This now makes it possible to use sperm as a source of mRNAs and as a window into past gene expression. This raises the intriguing possibility of whether changes in mRNA profiles can be used to identify infertile males. The purpose of this study was to define the spermatozoa mRNA fingerprint for the normal fertile male. This was accomplished by scanning a set of 30,298
different expressed sequence tags (EST) with testis mRNAs, and with sperm mRNAs from both pooled and single ejaculates. A total of 7,157 different ESTs were identified in testis. This testis population contained all 3,385 ESTs from the pooled semen sample, which in turn contained all but 4 of the 3,015 ESTs from the individual semen sample. This analysis permits an estimate with 95% confidence that these observations are within 0.10% of the total number of mRNAs present in sperm. This would suggest that the sperm RNA fingerprint representative of a normal fertile male has been defined. Clinical testing is now being pursued.
This work was supported by NIH grant HD36512 to SAK.
This is an abstract of a proposed presentation and does not necessarily reflect EPA policy.