Department of Animal Science and Technology, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan, ROC.
Anim Reprod Sci. 2010 May;119(1-2):76-84. doi: 10.1016/j.anireprosci.2009.12.002. Epub 2009 Dec 16.
Seasonal infertility is a well-known problem in the modern swine (Sus scrofa) industry. The molecular mechanisms responsible for thermal effects on spermatogenesis are, however, just beginning to be elucidated. The existence of specific messenger RNA (mRNA) remnants contained within freshly ejaculated sperm has been identified in several species. Investigators have obtained differential RNA profiles of infertile men compared with fertile individuals; however, there are limited to the probes, which are mostly derived from nucleic acids of testicular tissues of either human or mice. The objective of this study was to investigate mRNA remnants from ejaculated sperm of the domestic swine and uncover important clues regarding the molecular regulation of spermatogenesis under environmental thermo-impacts. We utilized the remnant mRNA collected from swine ejaculated sperm as the target source to detect the global gene expression in summer and in winter by swine sperm-specific oligonucleotide microarray. Sixty-seven transcripts were differentially expressed with statistical differences between seasons of sperm samples collected, including forty-nine in winter (49/67) and eighteen in summer (18/67). There were only 33 of these transcripts that could be annotated to gene ontology hierarchy with the database of Homo sapiens and their functions mostly were involved in variety of metabolic processes. Moreover, these studies also confirmed that significant differences of gene expression profiles were found in swine sperm when comparisons were made between ejaculates collected during the winter and the summer season under the subtropical area such as Taiwan. Even though most of the genes found in our experiments are still poorly understood in terms of their true functions in spermatogenesis, bioinformatics analysis suggested that they are involved in a broad spectrum of biochemical processes including gamete generation. These concordant profiles should permit the development of a non-invasive testing protocol to assess the functional capacity of sperm as well as a new molecular selection scheme for fine breeding swine.
季节性不育症是现代养猪业（Sus scrofa）中众所周知的问题。然而，导致精子发生热效应的分子机制才刚刚开始被阐明。在几种物种中，已经鉴定出刚射出的精子中存在特定的信使 RNA（mRNA）残余物。研究人员已经获得了不育男性与正常男性之间的差异 RNA 图谱；然而，这些探针的数量有限，主要来自人类或老鼠睾丸组织的核酸。本研究旨在研究从家猪射出的精子中的 mRNA 残余物，并揭示环境热冲击下精子发生的分子调控的重要线索。我们利用从猪射出的精子中收集的残留 mRNA 作为靶源，通过猪精子特异性寡核苷酸微阵列在夏季和冬季检测精子样本的全基因表达。收集的精子样本在季节上有 67 个转录本表达差异具有统计学意义，其中冬季有 49 个（49/67），夏季有 18 个（18/67）。这些转录本中只有 33 个可以用 Homo sapiens 数据库注释到基因本体层次，它们的功能主要涉及多种代谢过程。此外，这些研究还证实，在亚热带地区（如台湾）的夏季和冬季收集的精子样本中，基因表达谱存在显著差异。尽管我们实验中发现的大多数基因在精子发生中的真正功能方面仍然知之甚少，但生物信息学分析表明它们参与了广泛的生化过程，包括配子生成。这些一致的图谱应该允许开发一种非侵入性测试方案来评估精子的功能能力，并为精细养殖猪提供新的分子选择方案。
