During spermiogenesis, haploid spermatids undergo extensive chromatin remodeling events in which histones are successively replaced by more basic protamines to generate highly compacted chromatin. Here we show for the first time that H3K79 methylation is a conserved feature preceding the histone-to-protamine transition in Drosophila melanogaster and rat. During Drosophila spermatogenesis, the D...

Male germ cells have a unique morphology and function to facilitate fertilization. Sperm deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is highly condensed to protect the paternal genome during transfer from male to oocyte. Sperm cells undergo extensive epigenetic modifications during differentiation to become a mature spermatozoon. Epigenetic modifications, including DNA methylation, histone modifications, and c...

DNA in mammalian, and most vertebrate sperm, is packaged by protamines into a highly condensed, biochemically inert form of chromatin. A model is proposed for the structure of this DNA-protamine complex which describes the site and mode of protamine binding to DNA and postulates, for the first time, specific inter- and intraprotamine interactions essential for the organization of this highly sp...

BACKGROUND Histones are replaced by protamines to condensate and package DNA into the sperm head during mammalian spermatogenesis. Protamine genes defects have been reported to cause sperm DNA damage and male infertility. OBJECTIVE In this study relationship among some protamines genes family SNPs include PRM1 (C321A), PRM2 (C248T) and TNP2 (T1019C), (G1272C), (G del in 1036 and 1046 bp) were...

Protamines are abundant basic proteins involved in the condensation of sperm chromatin. In the mouse, protamine genes are transcribed postmeiotically in round spermatids. We have cloned and sequenced the mouse protamine 1 gene. Ten lines of transgenic mice harboring marked protamine 1 sequences were generated by microinjection of fertilized eggs. Transcription of the transgene is restricted to ...

Poly(A)+ protamine mRNA's were isolated from rainbow trout testes and deadenylated by treatment with calf thymus RNase H. Four subcomponents of deadenylated PmRNA (PmRNA1-4) were purified by electrophoresis on a 6% polyacrylamide gel in 8 M urea. Translation of each PmRNA subcomponent in the wheat germ S-30 cell-free system showed that all subcomponents are biologically active but each codes fo...

Some of the properties and the amino acid compositions of the histones of calf thymus, calf liver, fowl erythrocytes, and of a protamine-like material isolated from rooster sperm were described. The amino acid compositions of the histones were rather similar except that no methionine was found in the fowl erythrocyte histone. In the fowl, histones are found in the somatic chromosomes and protam...

Protamines confer a compact structure to the genome of male gametes. Here, we find that somatic cells can be remodeled by transient expression of protamine 1 (Prm1). Ectopically expressed Prm1 forms scattered foci in the nuclei of fibroblasts, which coalescence into spermatid-like structures, concomitant with a loss of histones and a reprogramming barrier, H3 lysine 9 methylation. Protaminized ...