title: Prss37 is required for male fertility in the mouse.
abstract: In order to understand the mechanisms of mammalian fertilization, studies using genetically manipulated animals have provided us with plenty of interesting and valuable information on the genetic factors affecting male fertility. In the present work, we demonstrate for the first time that Prss37, a previously uncharacterized putative trypsin-like serine protease, is required for male fertility. Prss37 is highly and exclusively expressed in the testis of adult mice, especially in the elongating spermatids during spermiogenesis, and almost vanishes in the mature sperm of mice. Mice deficient for Prss37 show male infertility, but their mating activity, spermatogenesis, sperm morphology, and motility remain unaffected. In vivo fertilization assays revealed that Prss37(-/-) mice exhibited a markedly decreased fertilization rate (2.3% vs. 70% of that in control mice) accompanied by the defect in sperm migration from uterus into oviduct. In vitro study further showed sperm were incapable of sperm-egg recognition/binding when zona-intact eggs were exposed to Prss37(-/-) sperm, in which mature Adam3 was completely undetectable. Interestingly, however, Prss37(-/-) sperm were able to fertilize cumulus-intact oocytes in vitro. These data clearly indicate that Prss37 deficiency causes the absence of mature Adam3 in sperm and a defect in sperm migration from uterus into oviduct, which mainly accounts for male infertility of Prss37-null mice, while the defect in sperm-zona binding seems irrelevant to the fertilizing ability of Prss37(-/-) sperm.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medical Genomics, Institute of Health Sciences, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences and School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Chunling
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kuang
authors.forename: Jianbing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Jingsheng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Xiaoyi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Wenting
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chi
authors.forename: Lingyun
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Yifei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fei
authors.forename: Zhugang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D051722:ADAM Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D005187:Fallopian Tubes / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility / Q000235:genetics*; D007248:Infertility, Male / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D057057:Serine Proteases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D013081:Sperm Motility; D013091:Spermatogenesis / Q000235:genetics*; D013737:Testis / Q000378:metabolism; D015044:Zona Pellucida / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D057057:Serine Proteases; D051722:ADAM Proteins; C485429:Adam3 protein, mouse
keywords: gene expression; male infertility; sperm motility and transport; sperm-zona binding; transgenic/knockout model