IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v460y2009i7254d10.1038_nature08162.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Distinctive chromatin in human sperm packages genes for embryo development

Author

Listed:
  • Saher Sue Hammoud

    (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Huntsman Cancer Institute
    IVF and Andrology Laboratories, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Physiology)

  • David A. Nix

    (Research Informatics and Bioinformatics Core Facility, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah School of Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA)

  • Haiying Zhang

    (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Huntsman Cancer Institute)

  • Jahnvi Purwar

    (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Huntsman Cancer Institute)

  • Douglas T. Carrell

    (IVF and Andrology Laboratories, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Physiology)

  • Bradley R. Cairns

    (Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Huntsman Cancer Institute)

Abstract

Because nucleosomes are widely replaced by protamine in mature human sperm, the epigenetic contributions of sperm chromatin to embryo development have been considered highly limited. Here we show that the retained nucleosomes are significantly enriched at loci of developmental importance, including imprinted gene clusters, microRNA clusters, HOX gene clusters, and the promoters of stand-alone developmental transcription and signalling factors. Notably, histone modifications localize to particular developmental loci. Dimethylated lysine 4 on histone H3 (H3K4me2) is enriched at certain developmental promoters, whereas large blocks of H3K4me3 localize to a subset of developmental promoters, regions in HOX clusters, certain noncoding RNAs, and generally to paternally expressed imprinted loci, but not paternally repressed loci. Notably, trimethylated H3K27 (H3K27me3) is significantly enriched at developmental promoters that are repressed in early embryos, including many bivalent (H3K4me3/H3K27me3) promoters in embryonic stem cells. Furthermore, developmental promoters are generally DNA hypomethylated in sperm, but acquire methylation during differentiation. Taken together, epigenetic marking in sperm is extensive, and correlated with developmental regulators.

Suggested Citation

  • Saher Sue Hammoud & David A. Nix & Haiying Zhang & Jahnvi Purwar & Douglas T. Carrell & Bradley R. Cairns, 2009. "Distinctive chromatin in human sperm packages genes for embryo development," Nature, Nature, vol. 460(7254), pages 473-478, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:460:y:2009:i:7254:d:10.1038_nature08162
    DOI: 10.1038/nature08162
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature08162
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature08162?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ariane Lismer & Sarah Kimmins, 2023. "Emerging evidence that the mammalian sperm epigenome serves as a template for embryo development," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-22, December.
    2. Pasquale Perrone & Gennaro Lettieri & Carmela Marinaro & Valentina Longo & Simonetta Capone & Angiola Forleo & Sebastiana Pappalardo & Luigi Montano & Marina Piscopo, 2022. "Molecular Alterations and Severe Abnormalities in Spermatozoa of Young Men Living in the “Valley of Sacco River” (Latium, Italy): A Preliminary Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-18, September.
    3. Filomena Mazzeo & Rosaria Meccariello, 2023. "Cannabis and Paternal Epigenetic Inheritance," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(9), pages 1-14, April.
    4. Carlos Olmeda-Gómez & Carlos Romá-Mateo & Maria-Antonia Ovalle-Perandones, 2019. "Overview of trends in global epigenetic research (2009–2017)," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 119(3), pages 1545-1574, June.
    5. Xuedi Zhang & Ju Peng & Menghua Wu & Angyang Sun & Xiangyu Wu & Jie Zheng & Wangfei Shi & Guanjun Gao, 2023. "Broad phosphorylation mediated by testis-specific serine/threonine kinases contributes to spermiogenesis and male fertility," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-20, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:460:y:2009:i:7254:d:10.1038_nature08162. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.