Núcleo de Ciencias Biológicas, Dirección de Núcleos Transversales, Facultad de estudios Interdisciplinarios, Universidad Mayor, Temuco, Chile.
Institute of Anatomy, Histology and Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad Austral de Chile, Valdivia, Chile.
Biol Res. 2021 Dec 20;54(1):41. doi: 10.1186/s40659-021-00364-0.
Cellular fate and gene expression patterns are modulated by different epigenetic factors including non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) and chromatin organization. Both factors are dynamic throughout male germ cell differentiation on the seminiferous tubule, despite the transcriptional inactivation in the last stages of spermatogenesis. Sperm maturation during the caput-to-cauda transit on the epididymis involves changes in chromatin organization and the soma-to-germ line transference of ncRNAs that are essential to obtain a functional sperm for fertilization and embryo development. Here, the male environment (diseases, drugs, mental stress) is crucial to modulate these epigenetic factors throughout sperm maturation, affecting the corresponding offspring. Paternal transgenerational inheritance has been directly related to sperm epigenetic changes, most of them associated with variations in the ncRNA content and chromatin marks. Our aim is to give an overview about how epigenetics, focused on ncRNAs and chromatin, is pivotal to understand spermatogenesis and sperm maturation, and how the male environment impacts the sperm epigenome modulating the offspring gene expression pattern.
细胞命运和基因表达模式受多种表观遗传因素调节，包括非编码 RNA(ncRNAs)和染色质组织。尽管在精子发生的最后阶段转录失活，但这两个因素在生精小管上的精子发生分化过程中都是动态变化的。在附睾的头到尾的转运过程中，精子成熟涉及染色质组织的变化和 ncRNAs 的体到生殖系转移，这些对于获得具有受精和胚胎发育功能的精子至关重要。在这里，男性环境(疾病、药物、精神压力)对于调节这些表观遗传因素在精子成熟过程中至关重要，从而影响相应的后代。父系跨代遗传与精子的表观遗传变化直接相关，其中大多数与 ncRNA 含量和染色质标记的变化有关。我们的目的是概述表观遗传学如何专注于 ncRNAs 和染色质，对于理解精子发生和精子成熟至关重要，以及男性环境如何影响精子表观基因组，从而调节后代的基因表达模式。
