| First Author | Tian H | Year | 2021 |
| Journal | Development | Volume | 148 |
| Issue | 11 | PubMed ID | 34100066 |
| Mgi Jnum | J:314468 | Mgi Id | MGI:6741448 |
| Doi | 10.1242/dev.199414 | Citation | Tian H, et al. (2021) Mouse EWSR1 is crucial for spermatid post-meiotic transcription and spermiogenesis. Development 148(11):dev199414 |
| abstractText | Spermatogenesis is precisely controlled by complex gene-expression programs. During mammalian male germ-cell development, a crucial feature is the repression of transcription before spermatid elongation. Previously, we discovered that the RNA-binding protein EWSR1 plays an important role in meiotic recombination in mouse, and showed that EWSR1 is highly expressed in late meiotic cells and post-meiotic cells. Here, we used an Ewsr1 pachytene stage-specific knockout mouse model to study the roles of Ewsr1 in late meiotic prophase I and in spermatozoa maturation. We show that loss of EWSR1 in late meiotic prophase I does not affect proper meiosis completion, but does result in defective spermatid elongation and chromocenter formation in the developing germ cells. As a result, male mice lacking EWSR1 after pachynema are sterile. We found that, in Ewsr1 CKO round spermatids, transition from a meiotic gene-expression program to a post-meiotic and spermatid gene expression program related to DNA condensation is impaired, suggesting that EWSR1 plays an important role in regulation of spermiogenesis-related mRNA synthesis necessary for spermatid differentiation into mature sperm. |
