Zalensky A, Zalenskaya I
The Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, VA 23518, USA.
Biochem Soc Trans. 2007 Jun;35(Pt 3):609-11. doi: 10.1042/BST0350609.
Elaborate non-random organization of human sperm chromosomes at different structural levels, starting from the DNA packing by protamines up to the higher-order chromosome configuration and nuclear positioning of chromosome territories, has been discovered. Here, we put forward a hypothesis that the unique genome architecture in sperm provides a mechanism for orchestrated unpacking and ordered activation of the male genome during fertilization, thus offering an additional level of epigenetic information that will be deciphered in the descendant cells.
已发现人类精子染色体在不同结构水平上存在精细的非随机组织，从鱼精蛋白对DNA的包装开始，直至高阶染色体构型以及染色体区域的核定位。在此，我们提出一个假说，即精子中独特的基因组结构为受精过程中雄性基因组的有序解压缩和有序激活提供了一种机制，从而提供了一种额外的表观遗传信息水平，该信息将在后代细胞中被解读。
