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SPERMATOZOAL RNA PROFILES OF NORMAL FERTILE MEN
Citation:
Ostermeier, G. C., D J. Dix, D. Miller, P. Khatri, AND S. A. Krawetz. SPERMATOZOAL RNA PROFILES OF NORMAL FERTILE MEN. LANCET. The Lancet, 360(9335):772-777, (2002).
Description:
What Constitutes the Normal Fertile Male?
G. Charles Ostermeier1, David J. Dix2, David Miller3, Purvesh Khatri4, and Stephen A. Krawetz1.
1Departments of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, & Institute for Scientific Computing, Wayne State University, USA. 2Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, USA. 3Reproductive Biology Group, University of Leeds, UK. 4Department of Computer Science, Wayne State University, USA.
Abstract
Several studies from this and other laboratories support the conclusion that spermatozoa contain a complex repertoire of mRNAs. Even though these mRNAs are thought to provide a window to past events of spermatogenesis, their complexity and function have yet to be established. To fill this void, a set of 27,016 different expressed sequence tag probes (ESTs) was interrogated using cDNAs from testes and both pooled and single ejaculate spermatozoal mRNAs. The testes cDNAs hybridized to 7,157 unique ESTs. This population contained all of the 3,281 ESTs identified by the cDNAs of the pooled-ejaculate probe, which in turn contained 2,780 ESTs identified by the cDNAs of the individual ejaculate probe. The data from testes and spermatozoa coincide and support the view that a spermatozoal mRNA fingerprint representative of a normal fertile male has been defined and that ejaculate spermatozoa can be used as a proxy for the testes in infertility investigations. The biological complexity of the spermatozoal mRNAs was determined. Interestingly, a subset of these mRNAs was associated with embryo development. This subpopulation complemented that of the oocyte and was unique to spermatozoa. The data suggest that in addition to delivering the paternal genome, spermatozoa possess a greater role in orchestrating normal embryo development.