Biogenesis and function of tRNA fragments during sperm maturation and fertilization in mammals

By Upasna Sharma, C. Conine, Jeremy M. Shea, Ana Boskovic, Alan G. Derr, X. Bing, C. Belleannée, Alper Kuçukural, Ryan W Serra, F. Sun and 10 more. Science, 2015

1,129 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Offspring affected by sperm small RNAs Paternal dietary conditions in mammals influence the metabolic phenotypes of offspring. Although prior work suggests the involvement of epigenetic pathways, the mechanisms remains unclear. Two studies now show that altered paternal diet affects the level of small RNAs in mouse sperm. Chen et al. injected sperm transfer RNA (tRNA) fragments from males that had been kept on a high-fat diet into normal oocytes. The progeny displayed metabolic disorders and concomitant alteration of genes in metabolic pathways. Sharma et al. observed the biogenesis and function of small tRNA-derived fragments during sperm maturation. Further understanding of the mechanisms by which progeny are affected by parental exposure may affect human diseases such as diet-induced metabolic disorders. Science, this issue p. 397, p. 391 Abundant transfer RNA fragments in maturing mammalian sperm regulate expression of endogenous retroelements in the embryo. Several recent studies link parental environments to phenotypes in subsequent generations. In this work, we investigate the mechanism by which paternal diet affects offspring metabolism. Protein restriction in mice affects small RNA (sRNA) levels in mature sperm, with decreased let-7 levels and increased amounts of 5′ fragments of glycine transfer RNAs (tRNAs). In testicular sperm, tRNA fragments are scarce but increase in abundance as sperm mature in the epididymis. Epididymosomes (vesicles that fuse with sperm during epididymal transit) carry RNA payloads matching those of mature sperm and can deliver RNAs to immature sperm in vitro. Functionally, tRNA-glycine-GCC fragments repress genes associated with the endogenous retroelement MERVL, in both embryonic stem cells and embryos. Our results shed light on sRNA biogenesis and its dietary regulation during posttesticular sperm maturation, and they also link tRNA fragments to regulation of endogenous retroelements active in the preimplantation embryo.

Subfields: Cancer Research, Molecular Biology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/78b2d75f8a742212e601847a359a89119804b658

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Citations in the corpus

Genome Regulation by Polycomb and Trithorax: 70 Years and Counting. (2017, neutral): “…will be important to define the extent to which this phenomenon can regulate endogenous genome function and its underlying molecular mechanisms, including the interplay with other components, such as ncRNAs, that have been linked to transgenerational inheritance (Sharma, 2017; Sharma et al., 2016).”
RNA modifications modulate gene expression during development (2018, positive): “…by displacing distinct RNA binding proteins and are therefore important players in stem cell differentiation ( 37, 39 ), sperm maturation ( 44 ), retrotransposon silencing ( 45 ), intergenerational transmission of paternally acquired metabolic disorders ( 46 ), and breast cancer…”