The Slingshot Phosphatase 2 is Required for Acrosome Biogenesis During Spermatogenesis in Mice

Overview

Journal Elife

Specialty Biology

Date 2023 Mar 21

PMID 36942942

Authors

Ke Xu

Xianwei Su

Kailun Fang

Yue Lv

Tao Huang

Mengjing Li

Ziqi Wang

Yingying Yin

Tahir Muhammad

Shangming Liu

Xiangfeng Chen

Jing Jiang

JinSong Li

Wai-Yee Chan

Jinlong Ma

Gang Lu

Zi-Jiang Chen

Hongbin Liu

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The acrosome is a membranous organelle positioned in the anterior portion of the sperm head and is essential for male fertility. Acrosome biogenesis requires the dynamic cytoskeletal shuttling of vesicles toward nascent acrosome which is regulated by a series of accessory proteins. However, much remains unknown about the molecular basis underlying this process. Here, we generated knockout (KO) mice and HA-tagged knock-in (KI) mice to define the functions of Slingshot phosphatase 2 (SSH2) in spermatogenesis and demonstrated that as a regulator of actin remodeling, SSH2 is essential for acrosome biogenesis and male fertility. In KO males, spermatogenesis was arrested at the early spermatid stage with increased apoptotic index and the impaired acrosome biogenesis was characterized by defective transport/fusion of proacrosomal vesicles. Moreover, disorganized F-actin structures accompanied by excessive phosphorylation of COFILIN were observed in the testes of KO mice. Collectively, our data reveal a modulatory role for SSH2 in acrosome biogenesis through COFILIN-mediated actin remodeling and the indispensability of this phosphatase in male fertility in mice.

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