- Title
- Characterisation of mouse epididymosomes reveals a complex profile of microRNAs and a potential mechanism for modification of the sperm epigenome
- Creator
- Reilly, Jackson N.; McLaughlin, Eileen A.; Nixon, Brett; Stanger, Simone J.; Anderson, Amanda L.; Hutcheon, Kate; Church, Kiralee; Mihalas, Bettina P.; Tyagi, Sonika; Holt, Janet E.; Eamens, Andrew L.
- Relation
- NHMRC.1062371 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/nhmrc/1062371
- Relation
- Scientific Reports Vol. 6, no. 31794
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep31794
- Publisher
- Nature Publishing Group
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2016
- Description
- Recent evidence has shown that the sperm epigenome is vulnerable to dynamic modifications arising from a variety of paternal environment exposures and that this legacy can serve as an important determinant of intergenerational inheritance. It has been postulated that such exchange is communicated to maturing spermatozoa via the transfer of small non-protein-coding RNAs (sRNAs) in a mechanism mediated by epididymosomes; small membrane bound vesicles released by the soma of the male reproductive tract (epididymis). Here we confirm that mouse epididymosomes encapsulate an impressive cargo of >350 microRNAs (miRNAs), a developmentally important sRNA class, the majority (~60%) of which are also represented by the miRNA signature of spermatozoa. This includes >50 miRNAs that were found exclusively in epididymal sperm and epididymosomes, but not in the surrounding soma. We also documented substantial changes in the epididymosome miRNA cargo, including significant fold changes in almost half of the miRNAs along the length of the epididymis. Finally, we provide the first direct evidence for the transfer of several prominent miRNA species between mouse epididymosomes and spermatozoa to afford novel insight into a mechanism of intercellular communication by which the sRNA payload of sperm can be selectively modified during their post-testicular maturation.
- Subject
- cell signalling; miRNAs; sperm epigenome; small non-protein-coding RNAs
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1348437
- Identifier
- uon:30207
- Identifier
- ISSN:2045-2322
- Rights
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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