Protamine-like sequences have been identified in poly A(+)mRNAs from mammalian testes by the use of a common, complementary oligonucleotide (GCAGCANCKPTANCKNGCCAT; predicted from the common N-terminal amino acid sequence, MARYRCC, seen in several mammalian P1 protamines [D.J. McKay, B.S. Renaux and G.H. Dixon, Bioscience Reports 5:383-391 (1985)]). This oligonucleotide was utilized to prepare s...

Post-meiotic transcription is widespread in mammalian spermatogenesis, but is generally believed to be absent from Drosophila spermatogenesis. Genes required during meiosis, in early spermatids or later in spermiogenesis are typically transcribed in primary spermatocytes in Drosophila. Their mRNAs are then stored in the cytoplasm until the protein product is needed. Recently, using in situ hybr...

Copyright: © 2011 Tosti E, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Spermiogenesis is the last phase of the process that give rise to a mature and competent spermatozoon. It occurs from a dramati...

During mammalian spermatogenesis, the chromatin structure undergoes substantial condensation. The key role in this process is played by protamines 1 and 2 (PRM1, PRM2). We attempted to compare the levels of PRM1 and PRM2 transcripts in mature spermatozoa of normospermic and asthenozoospermic men. Human ejaculates from normozoospermic (n=70) and asthenozoospermic (n=100) donors were purified by ...

tau.amegroups.com © Translational Andrology and Urology. All rights reserved. We greatly value the commentary by Dr. Gosalvez on the “Clinical utility of sperm DNA fragmentation testing: practice recommendations based on clinical scenarios” by Agarwal et al. (1). The author initiated his well-written note with an overview of the structural and physiologic significance of sperm DNA on male repro...

Spermiogenesis entails a major biochemical and morphological restructuring of the germ cell involving replacement of the somatic histones by protamines packing the DNA into the condensed spermatid nucleus and elimination of the cytoplasm during the elongation phase. We describe H1T2, an histone H1 variant selectively and transiently expressed in male haploid germ cells during spermiogenesis. In...

1. A procedure is described for the detection and assessment of informational complementarity in an amino acid sequence; it is based on possible autocomplementarity in the mRNA, and involves codon-to-codon matching. 2. This procedure was applied to myelin basic protein, a variety of protamines, histone IV, silk fibroin, rat skin collagen alpha1 chain and a sheep keratin. A multiplicity of exten...

Very few data are available concerning the amino acid content of mammalian sperm. The early work by Kossel (1) on the protamines of fish sperm and on the histones was primarily concerned with an attempt to elucidate the structure of the basic proteins. The basic proteins are, in general, characterized by a high arginine content. Zittle and O’Dell (2) have determined the methionine content of wh...

Chromosomes in terminally differentiated mammalian spermatozoa are extensively condensed by protamines but a small proportion of histones remain. We examined the primary organization of somatic-type chromatin in lysolecithin-permeabilized human sperm nuclei and report that nucleosomes are closely packed with a periodicity of approximately 150 bp. Incubation of nuclei in the presence of exogenou...