ZFP541 maintains the repression of pre-pachytene transcriptional programs and promotes male meiosis progression.

Cell reports 2022 Mar 22

filter terms:

The DSB machinery, which induces the programmed DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) in the leptotene and zygotene stages during meiosis, is suppressed before the onset of the pachytene stage. However, the biological significance and underlying mechanisms remain largely unclear. Here, we report that ZFP541 is indispensable for the suppression of DSB formation after mid-pachytene. The deletion of Zfp541 in mice causes the aberrant recruitment of DSB machinery to chromosome axes and generation of massive DSBs in late pachytene and diplotene spermatocytes, leading to meiotic arrest at the diplotene stage. Integrated analysis of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) sequencing data indicate that ZFP541 predominantly binds to promoters of pre-pachytene genes, including meiotic DSB formation-related genes (e.g., Prdm9 and Mei1) and their upstream activators (e.g., Meiosin and Rxra), and maintains their repression in pachytene spermatocytes. Our results reveal that ZFP541 functions as a transcriptional regulator in pachytene spermatocytes, orchestrating the transcriptome to ensure meiosis progression. Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Citation

Jianze Xu, Jianing Gao, Junyan Liu, Xue Huang, Huan Zhang, Ao Ma, Jingwei Ye, Xingxia Zhang, Yang Li, Gang Yang, Hao Yin, Ranjha Khan, Tao Li, Suixing Fan, Xiaohua Jiang, Yuanwei Zhang, Hanwei Jiang, Hui Ma, Qinghua Shi. ZFP541 maintains the repression of pre-pachytene transcriptional programs and promotes male meiosis progression. Cell reports. 2022 Mar 22;38(12):110540