Sperm Functional Genome Associated With Bull Fertility

Abstract

Bull fertility is an important economic trait in sustainable cattle production, as infertile or subfertile bulls give rise to large economic losses. Current methods to assess bull fertility are tedious and not totally accurate. The massive collection of functional data analyses, including genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, transcriptomics, and epigenomics, helps researchers generate extensive knowledge to better understand the unraveling physiological mechanisms underlying subpar male fertility. This review focuses on the sperm phenomes of the functional genome and epigenome that are associated with bull fertility. Findings from multiple sources were integrated to generate new knowledge that is transferable to applied andrology. Diverse methods encompassing analyses of molecular and cellular dynamics in the fertility-associated molecules and conventional sperm parameters can be considered an effective approach to determine bull fertility for efficient and sustainable cattle production. In addition to gene expression information, we also provide methodological information, which is important for the rigor and reliability of the studies. Fertility is a complex trait influenced by several factors and has low heritability, although heritability of scrotal circumference is high and that it is a known fertility maker. There is a need for new knowledge on the expression levels and functions of sperm RNA, proteins, and metabolites. The new knowledge can shed light on additional fertility markers that can be used in combination with scrotal circumference to predict the fertility of breeding bulls. This review provides a comprehensive review of sperm functional characteristics or phenotypes associated with bull fertility.

PRM1 Gene Expression and Its Protein Abundance in Frozen-Thawed Spermatozoa as Potential Fertility Markers in Breeding Bulls

“…Additionally, the non-compensable factors, such as molecular defects in sperm, cannot be addressed by raising the number of sperm per insemination instead of compensable characteristics, which may be solved by increasing the number of sperm per insemination [ 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 ]. PRM , the primary protein packaging for sperm DNA, is a component in sperm that plays a crucial role in determining these uncompensated traits and is also associated with molecular defects in sperm [ 8 , 10 , 12 , 13 , 25 , 28 ]. Additionally, hypercondensation of sperm chromatin occurs, during the elongated spermatid phase of spermiogenesis, involving the replacement of histones by transient transition proteins [ 52 ], then replaced by at least 85% by PRM until maternal histones return them after fertilization [ 53 ].…”

“…Over the years, a paradigm has arisen about classical semen quality assessment, including motility, usually less valuable and reliable in predicting male fertility, particularly in bovine species [ 7 ], confirmed by Özbek et al [ 8 ]. They revealed that although standard semen assessment visually identifies poor quality sperm, it was insufficient to detect potential subfertile bull markers.…”

Preliminary study on designing the binder of sperm-1 synthetic vaccine using sequence-based methods and molecular docking

“…Therefore, BSP-1 has been chosen as one of the biomarkers of male fertility. The research in an effort to find biomarkers for male fertility selection both proteomically and genomically has been carried out systematically for the last two decades [ 9 , 10 ]. These can be based on molecular compounds in sperm and SP [ 10 – 13 ].…”

Significance and Relevance of Spermatozoal RNAs to Male Fertility in Livestock

“…Several studies also identified Calcium ion channels such as CatSper in the spRNA population, which is essential in regulating capacitation and sperm motility in livestock species as well as humans ( Jan et al, 2017 ; Li et al, 2018 ; Singh et al, 2019 ; Nicolas et al, 2020 ). Besides these common sperm transcripts across various livestock species, there were flagellar specific spRNAs and sperm motility proteins such as BSP ( de Souza et al, 2017 ; Pardede et al, 2020 ), AKAP ( Gilbert et al, 2007 ; Chatterjee et al, 2010 ; Kasimanickam and Kastelic, 2016 ; Ing et al, 2020 ), ODF ( Chen et al, 2015 ; Li et al, 2018 ; Pardede et al, 2020 ; Özbek et al, 2021 ), zinc finger nucleases ( Card et al, 2013 ; Kasimanickam and Kastelic, 2016 ; Corral-Vazquez et al, 2021 ) and heat shock proteins. The heat shock proteins are a group of tyrosine regulatory elements that participate in hyperactivation and nitric oxide synthesis during fertilization ( Feugang et al, 2010 ; Mohamad et al, 2018 ; Nicolas et al, 2020 ; Lian et al, 2021 ; Sun et al, 2021 ).…”