Lymbery Rowan A, Garcia-Gonzalez Francisco, Evans Jonathan P
Centre for Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Australia.
Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, Kensington, Australia.
Proc Biol Sci. 2025 Jan;292(2038):20241516. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2024.1516. Epub 2025 Jan 8.
Sperm are traditionally viewed as transcriptionally and translationally silent cells. However, observations that components of the cellular machinery of gene expression are maintained in ejaculated sperm are increasingly cited as challenges to this fundamental assumption. Here, we critically evaluate these arguments and present three lines of evidence from both model and non-model systems that collectively raise the question of whether ejaculated sperm may be capable of active gene expression. First, and critical for arguments surrounding the possibility of differential gene expression, we review recent evidence that spermatozoa may retain the capacity to transcribe and translate their genomes. Second, we highlight how sperm cells can exhibit differential transcript quantities across different post-ejaculation environments. Third, we ask whether the accumulating evidence of remarkable phenotypic plasticity in post-ejaculatory sperm phenotypes could be mechanistically underpinned by changes in sperm gene expression. While these lines of evidence are indirect and do not definitively show transcription of sperm genomes, we highlight how emerging technologies may enable us to test this hypothesis explicitly. Our review advocates for progress in this field and highlights several important evolutionary, ecological and practical implications that will probably transcend disciplines to the clinical and applied reproductive sectors.
传统上，精子被视为转录和翻译沉默的细胞。然而，越来越多的观察表明，射精后的精子中保留了基因表达的细胞机制成分，这对这一基本假设构成了挑战。在这里，我们批判性地评估了这些论点，并从模式生物和非模式生物系统中提供了三条证据，共同提出了射精后的精子是否能够进行活跃基因表达的问题。首先，对于围绕差异基因表达可能性的论点至关重要的是，我们回顾了最近的证据，即精子可能保留转录和翻译其基因组的能力。其次，我们强调精子细胞如何在不同的射精后环境中表现出不同的转录本数量。第三，我们探讨射精后精子表型中显著的表型可塑性的累积证据是否可能在机制上由精子基因表达的变化所支撑。虽然这些证据是间接的，并没有明确显示精子基因组的转录，但我们强调新兴技术如何使我们能够明确地检验这一假设。我们的综述倡导该领域取得进展，并强调了一些重要的进化、生态和实际意义，这些意义可能会超越学科界限，延伸到临床和应用生殖领域。
