1. Protein phosphatase 6 is a key factor regulating spermatogenesis
- Author
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Lei, Wen-Long, Han, Feng, Hu, Meng-Wen, Liang, Qiu-Xia, Meng, Tie-Gang, Zhou, Qian, Ouyang, Ying-Chun, Hou, Yi, Schatten, Heide, Wang, Zhen-Bo, and Sun, Qing-Yuan
- Subjects
Reproductive Medicine ,Biochemistry and Cell Biology ,Biomedical and Clinical Sciences ,Biological Sciences ,Genetics ,Contraception/Reproduction ,1.1 Normal biological development and functioning ,Underpinning research ,Generic health relevance ,Animals ,Chromatin ,DNA Breaks ,Double-Stranded ,DNA Repair ,Male ,Mice ,Mice ,Inbred C57BL ,Pachytene Stage ,Phosphoprotein Phosphatases ,Spermatocytes ,Spermatogenesis ,Medical and Health Sciences ,Biochemistry & Molecular Biology ,Biological sciences ,Biomedical and clinical sciences ,Health sciences - Abstract
Protein phosphatase 6 (PP6) is a member of the PP2A-like subfamily, which plays a critical role in many fundamental cellular processes. We recently reported that PP6 is essential for female fertility. Here, we report that PP6 is involved in meiotic recombination and that germ cell-specific deletion of PP6 by Stra8-Cre causes defective spermatogenesis. The PP6-deficient spermatocytes were arrested at the pachytene stage and defects in DSB repair and crossover formation were observed, indicating that PP6 facilitated meiotic double-stranded breaks (DSB) repair. Further investigations revealed that depletion of PP6 in the germ cells affected chromatin relaxation, which was dependent on MAPK pathway activity, consequently preventing programmed DSB repair factors from being recruited to proper positions on the chromatin. Taken together, our results demonstrate that PP6 has an important role in meiotic recombination and male fertility.
- Published
- 2020