Delivering value from sperm proteomics for fertility

Abstract

Fertilization of an egg by a spermatozoon sets the stage for mammalian development. Viable sperm are a prerequisite for successful fertilization and beyond. Spermatozoa have a unique cell structure where haploid genomic DNA is located in a tiny cytoplasmic space in the head, mitochondria in the midpiece and then the tail, all enclosed by several layers of membrane. Proteins in sperm play vital roles in motility, capacitation, fertilization, egg activation and embryo development. Molecular defects in these proteins are associated with low fertility or in some cases, infertility. This review will first summarize genesis, molecular anatomy and physiology of spermatozoa, fertilization, embryogenesis and then those proteins playing important roles in various aspects of sperm physiology.

Head and flagella subcompartmental proteomic analysis of human spermatozoa

“…To date, there have been several attempts to conduct subcellular proteomic analyses of spermatozoa from the mouse (see [57][58][59][60][61]) and human sperm proteomes [9][10][11]15,26,27,[62][63][64][65][66][67][68] most of which reported less than 100 protein identifications. One of the more comprehensive lists published to date surveyed the entire sperm proteome and documented 1057 unique identifications [64].…”

Fertility‐associated metabolites in bull seminal plasma and blood serum: 1H nuclear magnetic resonance analysis

“…Yet these semen parameters have limited value for predicting a bull's fertility (Rodriguez-Martinez, 2006;Gillan et al, 2008;Dogan et al, 2013). The advent of sophisticated equipment, powerful computers and software, and fluorescent stains have established semen assays whose metrics show a positive relationship with bull fertility, including computer-assisted sperm motility parameters (Farrell et al, 1998); sperm membrane integrity (Januskauskas et al, 2003); normal acrosome; mitochondrial function and DNA damage (Waterhouse et al, 2006); fertility-associated proteins (Bellin et al, 1998;Klinefelter 2008;Byrne et al, 2012;Park et al, 2012a); specific microRNAs (Govindaraju et al, 2012); apoptotic changes (Anzar et al, 2002); penetration through artificial mucus (Al Naib et al, 2011); ability to undergo an acrosome reaction (Januskauskas et al, 2000); binding with oviductal epithelium (Lefebvre and Suarez, 1996) and zona pellucida Saacke et al, 2000); and in vitro fertilization using bovine (Marquant-Le Guienne et al, 1990;Zhang et al, 1997) and zona-free hamster (Park et al, 2012b) oocytes. However, these assays remain controversial in regards to their reliability and accuracy in predicting a bull's fertility.…”

The Role of Genomics in Conservation and Reproductive Sciences

“…However, the introduction of third generation of sequencing tools that promise longer, more accurate reads of DNA at even lower costs will inexorably increase the potential of integrating these techniques into basic research and wildlife conservation efforts (Kohn et al 2006 ;Allendorf et al 2010 ;Ouborg et al 2010 ;Govindaraju et al 2012 ;Zhao and Grant 2011 ). Other techniques, such as real-time single molecule sequencing will enable rapid and precise assessment of genomic interactions, such as between the sperm and egg or between the embryo and mother.…”

“…In mammals, sperm cells start forming during embryonic development and the pool of sperm stem cells are established shortly after birth (Govindaraju et al 2012 ). Although many of these processes occur within the testis, they also include post-gonadal modifi cations controlled by genetic variation that infl uence sperm motility, interuterine interactions with the female, sperm capacitation, egg binding, and sperm penetration that in aggregate will determine levels of male fertility.…”