Integrated Analyses of Phenotype and Quantitative Proteome of CMTM4 Deficient Mice Reveal Its Association with Male Fertility.
Fujun LiuXueXia LiuXin LiuTing LiPeng ZhuZhengYang LiuHui XueWenJuan WangXiuLan YangJuan LiuWenLing HanPublished in: Molecular & cellular proteomics : MCP (2019)
The chemokine-like factor (CKLF)-like MARVEL transmembrane domain-containing family (CMTM) is a gene family that has been implicated in male reproduction. CMTM4 is an evolutionarily conserved member that is highly expressed in the testis. However, its function in male fertility remains unknown. Here, we demonstrate that CMTM4 is associated with spermatogenesis and sperm quality. Using Western blotting and immunohistochemical analyses, we found CMTM4 expression to be decreased in poor-quality human spermatozoa, old human testes, and testicular biopsies with nonobstructive azoospermia. Using CRISPR-Cas9 technology, we knocked out the Cmtm4 gene in mice. These Cmtm4 knockout (KO) mice showed reduced testicular daily sperm production, lower epididymal sperm motility and increased proportion of abnormally backward-curved sperm heads and bent sperm midpieces. These mice also had an evident sub-fertile phenotype, characterized by low pregnancy rates on prolonged breeding with wild type female mice, reduced in vitro fertilization efficiency and a reduced percentage of acrosome reactions. We then performed quantitative proteomic analysis of the testes, where we identified 139 proteins to be downregulated in Cmtm4-KO mice, 100 (71.9%) of which were related to sperm motility and acrosome reaction. The same proteomic analysis was performed on sperm, where we identified 3588 proteins with 409 being differentially regulated in Cmtm4-KO mice. Our enrichment analysis showed that upregulated proteins were enriched with nucleosomal DNA binding functions and the downregulated proteins were enriched with actin binding functions. These findings elucidate the roles of CMTM4 in male fertility and demonstrates its potential as a promising molecular candidate for sperm quality assessment and the diagnosis or treatment of male infertility.
Keyphrases
- wild type
- high fat diet induced
- dna binding
- crispr cas
- endothelial cells
- high resolution
- poor prognosis
- cystic fibrosis
- gene expression
- physical activity
- genome wide
- metabolic syndrome
- insulin resistance
- pseudomonas aeruginosa
- heart failure
- type diabetes
- genome editing
- hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
- preterm birth
- adipose tissue
- candida albicans
- label free