Synthetic endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), omnipresent in food, household, and personal care products, have been implicated in adverse trends in human reproduction, including infertility and increasing demand for assisted reproduction. Here, we study the action of 96 ubiquitous EDCs on human sperm. We show that structurally diverse EDCs activate the sperm-specific CatSper channel and, the...

Sperm hyper-activation is a dramatic change in sperm behavior where mature sperm burst into a final sprint in the race to the egg. The mechanism of sperm hyper-activation in many metazoans, including humans, consists of a jolt of Ca2+ into the sperm flagellum via CatSper ion channels. Surprisingly, all nine CatSper genes have been independently lost in several animal lineages. In Drosophila, sp...

A sperm-specific cation channel (CatSper) facilitates the entry of calcium necessary for rapid changes in sperm motility allowing the cell to navigate the hurdles of the female reproductive tract and successfully to locate the egg. Brenker and colleagues show that CatSper is (directly) activated by a diverse range of small organic molecules that are reported to evoke chemotaxis in human spermat...

Background: Low levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and calcium are necessary for sperm function. NADPH oxidase 5 (NOX5) is a membrane enzyme which produces ROS. This enzyme is dependent on calcium for its activity. We investigated the importance of NOX5 and an important calcium channel (CatSper) on sperm function.Methods: This laboratory in-vitro study was done in Shiraz, Iran, 2016. Norma...

Calcium signalling is critical for successful fertilization. In spermatozoa, capacitation, hyperactivation of motility and the acrosome reaction are all mediated by increases in intracellular Ca(2+). Cation channels of sperm proteins (CATSPERS1-4) form an alkalinization-activated Ca(2+)-selective channel required for the hyperactivated motility of spermatozoa and male fertility. Each of the Cat...

STUDY QUESTION Is the environmental endocrine disruptor p,p'-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p,p'-DDE) able to induce non-genomic changes in human sperm and consequently affect functional sperm parameters? SUMMARY ANSWER p,p'-DDE promoted Ca(2+) flux into human sperm by activating CatSper channels even at doses found in human reproductive fluids, ultimately compromising sperm parameters imp...

The Cape mountain zebra (Equus zebra) has recovered from near extinction over more than eight decades. While their numbers have increased, populations remain isolated with low genetic diversity. With 75 new being founded and 4800 extant animals, conservation management strategies are implemented to mitigate risk of losses in diversity reproductive fitness. One objective is identify characterist...

Channel activities, particularly those of calcium channels, have vital roles in the process of sperm maturation, motility and sperm-egg interaction. A group of the recently discovered ion channels associated with these processes is four novel channel-like proteins known as CatSper (cation channel sperm) gene family. CatSper1 and CatSper2 show sperm specific expression patterns. However, neither...

Mammalian sperm must hyperactivate in order to fertilize oocytes. Hyperactivation is characterized by highly asymmetrical flagellar bending. It serves to move sperm out of the oviductal reservoir and to penetrate viscoelastic fluids, such as the cumulus matrix. It is absolutely required for sperm penetration of the oocyte zona pellucida. In order for sperm to hyperactivate, cytoplasmic Ca level...