The maturation of murine spermatozoa membranes within the epididymis, a computational biology perspective

Abstract

(2016) The maturation of murine spermatozoa membranes within the epididymis, a computational biology perspective, Systems Biology in Reproductive Medicine, 62:5, 299-308, DOI: 10.1080/19396368.2016 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10. 1080/19396368.2016.1205679 To become fertile, mammalian spermatozoa require completing a complex biochemical maturation that begins in the testis and ends within the female oviduct. Here, we paid attention to the events occurring at the membrane level during the epididymal transit. Indeed, in the epididymis, the molecular composition and the physical-chemical proprieties of sperm membranes markedly change, with functional cross talking among the spermatozoa, the epithelium, and the luminal content (particularly the epididymosomes). To study this process, we undertook a biological networks study, representing the involved molecules as nodes and their interactions as links. The analysis of network topology revealed that it has a scale free and small world architecture and it is robust against random failure. That assures a fast and efficient transmission of information and it leads to identifying the molecules exerting a higher level of control on the system, among which cholesterol plays a pivotal role. The reactome enrichment analysis allowed the reconstruction of the biochemical pathways involved in sperm epididymal maturation and STRING analysis permitted the identification of molecular events possibly involved in that process. In conclusion, this approach allows inferring interesting information, thus contributing to the knowledge on this process and suggesting staring points for further research. ARTICLE HISTORY

Cyclin–CDK Complexes are Key Controllers of Capacitation-Dependent Actin Dynamics in Mammalian Spermatozoa

“…Here, we adopted a computational biology approach to gather the available data in order to reconstruct the active pathway responsible for the control of AD in spermatozoa. This strategy has been recently developed and is very promising in giving important data in several branches of biology, from cancer [23] to biochemical machinery [24] to germ cells physiology [20,25,26,27]. More in detail, we used the biological networks to carry out an operation of reverse engineering in four steps: first, we collected the data from the literature (Step 1); we enriched them by using a specific systems biology tool (STRING) (Step 2); we created, analyzed, and visualized the networks (Step 3); and, finally, we took the inference about AD control mechanisms (Step 4).…”

“…The freely available and diffusible molecules, such as H 2 O, CO 2 , P i , H + , and O 2 were omitted, since they were considered not necessary and in some cases the record did not represent a single molecule but a complex event, due to the fact that most of the single molecular determinant of the phenomenon are still unknown. The quality control was realized as previously described [27]. Briefly, as a reference, two expert researchers on spermatozoa biology carried out an independent literature analysis on papers that referred to the sperm AD during capacitation, using the same key words, in curated scientific literature databases (PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science).…”

Male Infertility: Shining a Light on Lipids and Lipid-Modulating Enzymes in the Male Germline

“…While it is well known that extensive membrane lipid remodeling underpins the combined processes of germ cell development and their post-testicular maturation [16], it is somewhat surprising that the deleterious role of lipid stress has received minimal attention in terms of its contribution to sperm cell dysfunction. Indeed, despite our knowledge of the lipid composition of the sperm plasma membrane in many species [17], the contribution of these lipids to cellular stress and signal transduction has not been well studied in male germ cells.…”

Membrane Dynamics of Spermatozoa during Capacitation: New Insight in Germ Cells Signalling

“…The switch from a single molecule-oriented reductionist approach to the whole system-oriented holistic approach (characteristic of systems biology) requires the adoption of mathematical formalisms used in studying complexity. For instance, our group has recently developed a Germ Cell 90 biological network-based computational modelling approach, useful to describe and to study the events involved in epididymal maturation of spermatozoa [82], as well as sperm capacitation and acrosome reaction [32,[83][84][85]. In particular, the molecules involved in these events are represented as nodes linked by their reciprocal interactions, thus originating a network.…”