Mouse EWSR1 is crucial for spermatid post-meiotic transcription and spermiogenesis.

Hui Tian, Petko M Petkov

Development (Cambridge, England) 2021 Jun 01

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Spermatogenesis is precisely controlled by complex gene-expression programs. During mammalian male germ-cell development, a crucial feature is the repression of transcription before spermatid elongation. Previously, we discovered that the RNA-binding protein EWSR1 plays an important role in meiotic recombination in mouse, and showed that EWSR1 is highly expressed in late meiotic cells and post-meiotic cells. Here, we used an Ewsr1 pachytene stage-specific knockout mouse model to study the roles of Ewsr1 in late meiotic prophase I and in spermatozoa maturation. We show that loss of EWSR1 in late meiotic prophase I does not affect proper meiosis completion, but does result in defective spermatid elongation and chromocenter formation in the developing germ cells. As a result, male mice lacking EWSR1 after pachynema are sterile. We found that, in Ewsr1 CKO round spermatids, transition from a meiotic gene-expression program to a post-meiotic and spermatid gene expression program related to DNA condensation is impaired, suggesting that EWSR1 plays an important role in regulation of spermiogenesis-related mRNA synthesis necessary for spermatid differentiation into mature sperm. © 2021. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.

Citation

Hui Tian, Petko M Petkov. Mouse EWSR1 is crucial for spermatid post-meiotic transcription and spermiogenesis. Development (Cambridge, England). 2021 Jun 01;148(11)