Sperm Proteome after Interaction with Reproductive Fluids in Porcine: From the Ejaculation to the Fertilization Site

Abstract

Ejaculated sperm are exposed to different environments before encountering the oocyte. However, how the sperm proteome changes during this transit remains unsolved. This study aimed to identify proteomic changes in boar sperm after incubation with male (seminal plasma, SP) and/or female (uterine fluid, UF; and oviductal fluid, OF) reproductive fluids. The following experimental groups were analyzed: (1) SP: sperm + 20% SP; 2) UF: sperm + 20% UF; 3) OF: sperm + 20% OF; 4) SP + UF: sperm + 20% SP + 20% UF; and (5) SP+OF: sperm + 20% SP + 20% OF. The proteome analysis, performed by HPLC-MS/MS, allowed the identification of 265 proteins. A total of 69 proteins were detected in the UF, SP, and SP + UF groups, and 102 proteins in the OF, SP, and SP + OF groups. Our results showed a higher number of proteins when sperm were incubated with only one fluid than when they were co-incubated with two fluids. Additionally, the number of sperm-interacting proteins from the UF group was lower than the OF group. In conclusion, the interaction of sperm with reproductive fluids alters its proteome. The description of sperm-interacting proteins in porcine species after co-incubation with male and/or female reproductive fluids may be useful to understand sperm transport, selection, capacitation, or fertilization phenomena.

A Comparative View on the Oviductal Environment during the Periconception Period

“…We provide a Table S1 with the detected peptide and proteins from each sample. The detailed methods concerning the HPLC Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) workflow are described by Luongo et al, 2020 [ 86 ].…”

Replacement of Albumin by Preovulatory Oviductal Fluid in Swim-Up Sperm Preparation Method Modifies Boar Sperm Parameters and Improves In Vitro Penetration of Oocytes

“…During this journey, seminal plasma content is reduced, and a large number of spermatozoa die, with only a thousand or fewer reaching the fertilization site to fertilize the ovulated cumulus-enclosed oocytes [ 1 ]. Within the female tract, sperm cells interact with many different components found in the reproductive fluids [ 2 ]. Under in vitro conditions, an efficient sperm selection method must provide spermatozoa with adequate motility and morphology, maintaining high-quality spermatozoa’s viability by removing the toxic and lytic effect induced by abnormal and dead spermatozoa [ 3 ].…”

Protein Identification of Spermatozoa and Seminal Plasma in Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)

“…When the seminal plasma is deposited in the female genital tract, it affects the inflammatory and immune responses (reviewed by Bromfield, 2018), protecting sperm (Kawano et al, 2014;Luongo et al, 2019), and even having an impact on the offspring (Bromfield et al, 2014). Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that the proteins of reproductive fluids (including oviductal and uterine fluids, and seminal plasma) are involved in the interaction with the sperm proteome (Luongo et al, 2020;Rickard and de Graaf, 2020).…”

“…Proteomic analysis has been used to describe the sperm and seminal plasma proteome either in non-mammal species, such as fish (Ciereszko et al, 2017;Dietrich et al, 2017), and in mammals, such as murine (Baker et al, 2008;Vicens et al, 2017), porcine (Perez-Patiño et al, 2016;Recuero et al, 2019;Luongo et al, 2020), equine (Swegen et al, 2015;Guasti et al, 2020), ovine (Cardozo et al, 2006;Pini et al, 2016), caprine (Pinto et al, 2019;Zhu et al, 2020;Martínez-Fresneda et al, 2021), bovine (Peddinti et al, 2008;Byrne et al, 2012), non-human primates (Skerget et al, 2013), and human (Martínez-Heredia et al, 2006), but not yet in any cetacean species. Furthermore, such studies have permitted the identification of proteins that can act as biomarkers of fertility (Dacheux et al, 2012;Li et al, 2016;Rahman et al, 2017;Druart and de Graaf, 2018;Pérez-Patiño et al, 2018;Druart et al, 2019), their relevance for sperm preservation (Soleilhavoup et al, 2014;Parrilla et al, 2019;Peris-Frau et al, 2019;Ryu et al, 2019;Bajuk et al, 2020;De Lazari et al, 2020) or involvement in sperm functional traits (Intasqui et al, 2016;Bezerra et al, 2019;De Lazari et al, 2019).…”