A load of small RNAs in the sperm — how many bits of hereditary information?

Kiani, Jafar; Rassoulzadegan, Minoo

doi:10.1038/cr.2012.181

Cited by 22 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Dnmt2, like NSun2, confers stability to mature tRNA via cytosine-5 methylation and its loss affects 5′ halve production [43, 45–47]. Because of this, tsRNAs, specifically 5′ halves, have been postulated to be effectors of epigenetic inheritance [26, 48]. Our discovery that 5′ halves were abnormally enriched in transgenerational vinclozolin lineage sperm, and potentially correlated to the vinclozolin lineage transgenerational disease phenotype, provides additional evidence to the idea that sperm-borne 5′ halves act as epigenetic regulators.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ancestral vinclozolin exposure alters the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of sperm small noncoding RNAs

2016

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Exposure to the agricultural fungicide vinclozolin during gestation promotes a higher incidence of various diseases in the subsequent unexposed F3 and F4 generations. This phenomenon is termed epigenetic transgenerational inheritance and has been shown to in part involve alterations in DNA methylation, but the role of other epigenetic mechanisms remains unknown. The current study investigated the alterations in small noncoding RNA (sncRNA) in the sperm from F3 generation control and vinclozolin lineage rats. Over 200 differentially expressed sncRNAs were identified and the tRNA-derived sncRNAs, namely 5′ halves of mature tRNAs (5′ halves), displayed the most dramatic changes. Gene targets of the altered miRNAs and tRNA 5′ halves revealed associations between the altered sncRNAs and differentially DNA methylated regions. Dysregulated sncRNAs appear to correlate with mRNA profiles associated with the previously observed vinclozolin-induced disease phenotypes. Data suggest potential connections between sperm-borne RNAs and the vinclozolin-induced epigenetic transgenerational inheritance phenomenon.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ancestral vinclozolin exposure alters the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of sperm small noncoding RNAs

2016

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“…5A) [51]. The predominance of 5′ halves in sperm-borne small RNA populations, in addition to speculation that they may play an important role in epigenetic inheritance, led us to focus our attention on this particular class of tsRNAs [16, 17, 51, 80–82]. …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

SpermBase: A Database for Sperm-Borne RNA Contents

Schuster

Tang

Xie

et al. 2016

Biology of Reproduction

106

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Since their discovery approximately three decades ago, sperm-borne RNAs, both large/small and coding/noncoding, have been reported in multiple organisms, and some have been implicated in spermatogenesis, early development, and epigenetic inheritance. Despite these advances, isolation, quantification, and annotation of sperm-borne RNAs remain nontrivial. The yields and subspecies of sperm-borne RNAs isolated from sperm can vary drastically depending on the methods used, and no cross-species analyses of sperm RNA contents have ever been conducted using a standardized sperm RNA isolation protocol. To address these issues, we developed a simple RNA isolation method that is applicable to sperm of various species, thus allowing for reliable interspecies comparisons. Based on RNASeq analyses, we established SpermBase (www.spermbase.org), a database dedicated to sperm-borne RNA profiling of multiple species. Currently, SpermBase contains large and small RNA expression data for mouse, rat, rabbit, and human total sperm and sperm heads. By analyzing large and small RNAs for conserved features, we found that many sperm-borne RNA species were conserved across all four species analyzed, and among the conserved small RNAs, sperm-borne tRNA-derived small noncoding RNAs and miRNAs can target a large number of genes known to be critical for early development.

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“…Studies in the last decade have shown that sperm also contributes to the epigenetic landscape of the zygote (73,74) and carries the epigenetic information in four forms: non-random genomic occupancy of canonical histones, histone variants, and protamines (8,9,12); the presence of post-translational modifications on histones and protamines (9,15,17); the DNA methylation pattern of spermatozoa (75)(76)(77)(78); and spermatozoal RNA (79,80). Environmental insults are known to alter the sperm epigenome, which results in offspring with clinical manifestations (81).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mapping of Post-translational Modifications of Transition Proteins, TP1 and TP2, and Identification of Protein Arginine Methyltransferase 4 and Lysine Methyltransferase 7 as Methyltransferase for TP2

Gupta¹,

Madapura²,

Bhat

et al. 2015

Journal of Biological Chemistry

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Background: Transition proteins replace 90% of the nucleosomal histones during nucleo-histone to nucleo-protamine chromatin reconfiguration in mammalian spermiogenesis. Results: Major transition proteins, TP1 and TP2, harbor several post-translational modifications. TP2 is methylated by PRMT4 and KMT7 methyltransferase. Conclusion: Endogenous transition proteins, TP1 and TP2, exhibit extensive post-translational modifications. Significance: This work provides insight into the chromatin remodeling events during spermiogenesis and establishment of the sperm epigenome.

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A load of small RNAs in the sperm — how many bits of hereditary information?

Cited by 22 publications

References 15 publications

Ancestral vinclozolin exposure alters the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of sperm small noncoding RNAs

Ancestral vinclozolin exposure alters the epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of sperm small noncoding RNAs

SpermBase: A Database for Sperm-Borne RNA Contents

Mapping of Post-translational Modifications of Transition Proteins, TP1 and TP2, and Identification of Protein Arginine Methyltransferase 4 and Lysine Methyltransferase 7 as Methyltransferase for TP2

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