Impact of sperm protein translation on motility

• Autor(a) principal: Queirós, Bruno Miguel Neiva
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/39548
• topic: Spermatozoa; Translation; Inhibition of translation; Motility

Spermatozoa are haploid cells that undergo important transformations, culminating, theoretically, in gene expression silencing. However, recent studies report residual translational activity in capacitated spermatozoa, particularly in the mitoribosomes. Nevertheless, it has been demonstrated that this activity is heavily influenced by cytoplasmic translation inhibitors and that protein synthesis inhibition negatively affects motility patterns. The aim of this dissertation is to characterize and evaluate the translational activity in spermatozoa and its impact on sperm motility, through an experimental and bioinformatic analysis. Firstly, sperm motility when treated with cytoplasmic and mitochondrial translation inhibitors was assessed. Overall, no statistically significant results were found, but it was possible to observe a pattern of decreased fast-progressive spermatozoa and increased medium-progressive, non-progressive, and immotile spermatozoa, suggesting that translation activity may play a role in maintaining sperm motility during capacitation. On the other hand, it was not possible to locate protein synthesis within the cell by puromycin incorporation and immunocytochemistry detection. Concerning the bioinformatic approach, 13216 sperm proteins were collected, from which 654 were translation-related and 197 differentially expressed in asthenozoospermic and low motility spermatozoa. Next, to find highly-related proteins exclusively associated with translation, a protein-protein interaction and functional enrichment analysis were performed, resulting in 71 proteins. From those 71 proteins, 12 were associated with infertility and infertility-related phenotypes and diseases. Together, these findings suggest a role of translational activity in sperm motility and male fertility, but further studies are needed to fully understand the mechanisms underlying translation’s contribution to sperm function, particularly motility.