Development
Development
5 years ago

Unraveling transcriptome dynamics in human spermatogenesis.

Hamer, Vormer, Jan, van Pelt, Repping, Silber, Jongejan, Röling, de Rooij
Spermatogenesis is a dynamic developmental process that includes stem cell proliferation and differentiation, meiotic cell divisions and extreme chromatin condensation. Although studied in mice, the molecular control of human spermatogenesis is largely unknown. Here, we developed a protocol that enables next generation sequencing of RNA obtained from pools of 500 individually laser capture microdissected cells of specific germ cell-subtypes from fixed human testis samples. Transcriptomic analyses of these successive germ cell subtypes reveals dynamic transcription of over 4000 genes during human spermatogenesis. At the same time, many of the genes encoding for well- established meiotic and post-meiotic proteins are already present in the pre-meiotic phase. Furthermore, we found significant cell type-specific expression of post-transcriptional regulators, including expression of 110 RNA-binding proteins and 137 long non-coding RNAs, most of them previously not linked to spermatogenesis. Together this suggests that the transcriptome of precursor cells already contains genes necessary for cellular differentiation and that timely translation controlled by post-transcriptional regulators seems crucial for normal development. These established transcriptomes provide a reference catalog for further detailed studies on human spermatogenesis and spermatogenic failure.

Publisher URL: http://doi.org/10.1242/dev.152413

DOI: 10.1242/dev.152413

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.