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Zigo M, Netherton J, Zelenková N, Kerns K, Kraus V, Postlerová P, Baker M, Sutovsky P. Bottom-up approach to deciphering the targets of the ubiquitin-proteasome system in porcine sperm capacitation. Sci Rep 2024; 14:20159. [PMID: 39215164 PMCID: PMC11364869 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-71056-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2024] [Accepted: 08/23/2024] [Indexed: 09/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Capacitation is an essential post-testicular maturation event endowing spermatozoa with fertilizing capacity within the female reproductive tract, significant for fertility, reproductive health, and contraception. By using a human-relevant large animal model, the domestic boar, this study focuses on furthering our understanding of the involvement of the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) in sperm capacitation. The UPS is a universal, evolutionarily conserved, cellular proteome-wide degradation and recycling machinery, that has been shown to play a significant role in reproduction during the past two decades. Herein, we have used a bottom-up proteomic approach to (i) monitor the capacitation-related changes in the sperm protein levels, and (ii) identify the targets of UPS regulation during sperm capacitation. Spermatozoa were capacitated under proteasomal activity-permissive and inhibiting conditions and extracted sperm proteins were subjected to high-resolution mass spectrometry. We report that 401 individual proteins differed at least two-fold in abundance (P < 0.05) after in vitro capacitation (IVC) and 13 proteins were found significantly different (P < 0.05) between capacitated spermatozoa with proteasomal inhibition compared to the vehicle control. These proteins were associated with biological processes including sperm capacitation, sperm motility, metabolism, binding to zona pellucida, and proteasome-mediated catabolism. Changes in RAB2A, CFAP161, and TTR during IVC were phenotyped by immunocytochemistry, image-based flow cytometry, and Western blotting. We conclude that (i) the sperm proteome is subjected to extensive remodeling during sperm capacitation, and (ii) the UPS has a narrow range of distinct protein substrates during capacitation. This knowledge highlights the importance of the UPS in sperm capacitation and offers opportunities to identify novel pharmacological targets to modulate sperm fertilizing ability for the benefit of human reproductive health, assisted reproductive therapy, and contraception, as well as reproductive management in food animal agriculture.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michal Zigo
- Division of Animal Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65211-5300, USA.
| | - Jacob Netherton
- HMRI Infertility and Reproduction Research Program, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia
| | - Natálie Zelenková
- Division of Animal Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65211-5300, USA
- Department of Veterinary Sciences, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, University of Life Sciences Prague, 16500, Prague, Czech Republic
| | - Karl Kerns
- Division of Animal Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65211-5300, USA
- Department of Animal Science, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, 50011, USA
| | - Veronika Kraus
- Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, BIOCEV, 25250, Vestec, Czech Republic
| | - Pavla Postlerová
- Department of Veterinary Sciences, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, University of Life Sciences Prague, 16500, Prague, Czech Republic
- Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, BIOCEV, 25250, Vestec, Czech Republic
| | - Mark Baker
- HMRI Infertility and Reproduction Research Program, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia
| | - Peter Sutovsky
- Division of Animal Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65211-5300, USA
- Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women's Health, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA
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Zigo M, Kerns K, Sutovsky P. The Ubiquitin-Proteasome System Participates in Sperm Surface Subproteome Remodeling during Boar Sperm Capacitation. Biomolecules 2023; 13:996. [PMID: 37371576 PMCID: PMC10296210 DOI: 10.3390/biom13060996] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2023] [Revised: 06/08/2023] [Accepted: 06/12/2023] [Indexed: 06/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Sperm capacitation is a complex process endowing biological and biochemical changes to a spermatozoon for a successful encounter with an oocyte. The present study focused on the role of the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) in the remodeling of the sperm surface subproteome. The sperm surface subproteome from non-capacitated and in vitro capacitated (IVC) porcine spermatozoa, with and without proteasomal inhibition, was selectively isolated. The purified sperm surface subproteome was analyzed using high-resolution, quantitative liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) in four replicates. We identified 1680 HUGO annotated proteins, out of which we found 91 to be at least 1.5× less abundant (p < 0.05) and 141 to be at least 1.5× more abundant (p < 0.05) on the surface of IVC spermatozoa. These proteins were associated with sperm capacitation, hyperactivation, metabolism, acrosomal exocytosis, and fertilization. Abundances of 14 proteins were found to be significantly different (p < 0.05), exceeding a 1.5-fold abundance between the proteasomally inhibited (100 µM MG132) and vehicle control (0.2% ethanol) groups. The proteins NIF3L1, CSE1L, NDUFB7, PGLS, PPP4C, STK39, and TPRG1L were found to be more abundant; while BPHL, GSN, GSPT1, PFDN4, STYXL1, TIMM10, and UBXN4 were found to be less abundant in proteasomally inhibited IVC spermatozoa. Despite the UPS having a narrow range of targets, it modulated sperm metabolism and binding by regulating susceptible surface proteins. Changes in CSE1L, PFDN4, and STK39 during in vitro capacitation were confirmed using immunocytochemistry, image-based flow cytometry, and Western blotting. The results confirmed the active participation of the UPS in the extensive sperm surface proteome remodeling that occurs during boar sperm capacitation. This work will help us to identify new pharmacological mechanisms to positively or negatively modulate sperm fertilizing ability in food animals and humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michal Zigo
- Division of Animal Science, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA;
| | - Karl Kerns
- Division of Animal Science, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA;
- Department of Animal Science, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA;
| | - Peter Sutovsky
- Department of Animal Science, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA;
- Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
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