Volume 24, No 7, Jul 2014
ISSN: 1001-0602
EISSN: 1748-7838 2018
impact factor 17.848*
(Clarivate Analytics, 2019)
Volume 24 Issue 7, July 2014: 852-869
ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Atg7 is required for acrosome biogenesis during spermatogenesis in mice
Hongna Wang1,2, Haifeng Wan1, Xixia Li1,2, Weixiao Liu1, Qi Chen1, Yaqing Wang3, Lin Yang3, Hongmei Tang4, Xiujun Zhang4, Enkui Duan1, Xiaoyang Zhao1, Fei Gao1 and Wei Li1
1State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
2University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
3State Key Laboratory of Molecular Developmental Biology, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
4College of Life Sciences, Hebei United University, Tangshan, Hebei 063000, China
Correspondence: Wei Li, Tel: 86-10-64807529; Fax: 86-10-64806480 E-mail: leways@ioz.ac.cn; Fei Gao, Tel: 86-10-64807593; Fax: 86-10-64806480(gaof@ioz.ac.cn)
The acrosome is a specialized organelle that covers the anterior part of the sperm nucleus and plays an essential role in the process of fertilization. The molecular mechanism underlying the biogenesis of this lysosome-related organelle (LRO) is still largely unknown. Here, we show that germ cell-specific Atg7-knockout mice were infertile due to a defect in acrosome biogenesis and displayed a phenotype similar to human globozoospermia; this reproductive defect was successfully rescued by intracytoplasmic sperm injections. Furthermore, the depletion of Atg7 in germ cells did not affect the early stages of development of germ cells, but at later stages of spermatogenesis, the proacrosomal vesicles failed to fuse into a single acrosomal vesicle during the Golgi phase, which finally resulted in irregular or nearly round-headed spermatozoa. Autophagic flux was disrupted in Atg7-depleted germ cells, finally leading to the failure of LC3 conjugation to Golgi apparatus-derived vesicles. In addition, Atg7 partially regulated another globozoospermia-related protein, Golgi-associated PDZ- and coiled-coil motif-containing protein (GOPC), during acrosome biogenesis. Finally, the injection of either autophagy or lysosome inhibitors into testis resulted in a similar phenotype to that of germ cell-specific Atg7-knockout mice. Altogether, our results uncover a new role for Atg7 in the biogenesis of the acrosome, and we provide evidence to support the autolysosome origination hypothesis for the acrosome.
10.1038/cr.2014.70
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