Disease relevance of Spermatocytes

• These results suggest that male infertility caused by thermal insult is at least partly due to the activation of HSF1, which induces the primary spermatocytes to undergo apoptosis [1].
• We generated Mtmr2-null mice, which develop progressive neuropathy characterized by myelin outfolding and recurrent loops, predominantly at paranodal myelin, and depletion of spermatids and spermatocytes from the seminiferous epithelium, which leads to azoospermia [2].
• Tumor suppressor of lung cancer 1 (TSLC1), also known as SgIGSF, IGSF4, and SynCAM, is strongly expressed in spermatogenic cells undergoing the early and late phases of spermatogenesis (spermatogonia to zygotene spermatocytes and elongating spermatids to spermiation) [3].
• Immunohistochemistry assays found TSP50 proteins located in the spermatocytes of human testes, whereas in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry confirmed that gene activation in breast tumors took place in malignant mammary epithelial cells [4].
• Synaptonemal complexes of the repopulating spermatocytes of male rats were analyzed day by day using silver-stained surface spread nuclei between 8 and 25 days after restricting the germ cell population to spermatogonia by treatment of gossypol acetic acid at 30 mg/kg body weight/day for 70 days [5].

High impact information on Spermatocytes

• Cyclin A1 is therefore essential for spermatocyte passage into the first meiotic division in male mice, a function that cannot be complemented by the concurrently expressed B-type cyclins [6].
• In contrast, the apoptotic elimination of spermatocytes with synaptic errors proved to be p53-independent [7].
• Mlh1-deficient spermatocytes exhibit high levels of prematurely separated chromosomes and arrest in first division meiosis [8].
• We observed a specific demethylation event in the Pgk-2 gene in prospermatogonia at about the time of birth, about 10 days before the onset of transcription which first occurs in primary spermatocytes [9].
• High levels of c-myc and c-jun RNAs were also detected in spermatocytes early in the prophase of meiosis [10].

Chemical compound and disease context of Spermatocytes

• On the mutagenicity of methadone hydrochloride. Induced dominant lethal mutation and spermatocyte chromosomal aberrations in treated males [11].
• Clastogenic effects of cis-diamminedichloroplatinum. II. Induction of chromosomal aberrations in primary spermatocytes and spermatogonial stem cells of mice [12].
• 2-Methoxyacetaldehyde (MALD) was shown to produce specific cellular toxicity to pachytene spermatocytes in mixed testicular cell cultures as evidenced by morphological changes to these cells, an increase in germ-cell detachment and leakage of the pachytene spermatocyte marker enzyme lactate dehydrogenase-X [13].
• Body and testis weights, serum luteinizing hormone, follicle-stimulating hormone, and prolactin values and volume fractions of Sertoli cells, spermatogonia, early and late primary spermatocytes, and round and long spermatids were evaluated in 70-day-old male rates treated orally with 20 mg of zearalenone/kg of body weight daily for 5 weeks [14].
• A single dose of 8 mg cisplatin/kg body weight administered to MF1 mice by an ip injection reduced the number of resting primary spermatocytes only [15].

Biological context of Spermatocytes

• Synaptonemal complex complement of man in spreads of spermatocytes, with details of the sex chromosome pair [16].
• As spermatogenesis proceeds, GFP-CLIP-170 expression increases and the fusion protein strongly marks syncytia of differentiated spermatogonia and early prophase spermatocytes [17].
• In pachynema, Sycp1(-/-) spermatocytes display a number of discrete gammaH2AX domains along each chromosome, whereas gammaH2AX disappears from autosomes in wild-type spermatocytes [18].
• EGF receptor RNA was detected in primary spermatocytes, whereas the synthesis of receptor protein was restricted to elongate spermatids, indicating that transgene expression was under translational control [19].
• The testes of the RT1l animals showed an arrest of spermatogenesis at the early pachytene stage of the primary spermatocytes, and they were approximately 1/10 as heavy as the testes of the RT1l/u and RT1u/u animals [20].

Anatomical context of Spermatocytes

• The spe-26 gene is expressed throughout the testis in both spermatogonial cells and spermatocytes [21].
• Instead, these spermatocytes arrest with missegregated chromosomes and mislocalized actin filaments, endoplasmic reticulum and ribosomes [21].
• IDE and IGFR mRNAs are colocalized in oocytes, while IDE is colocalized with the IGF-II receptor in spermatocytes, suggesting that IDE may be involved with degradation of IGF-II in the testis [22].
• Mutations in the KLP3A gene disrupt the interdigitation of microtubules in spermatocyte central spindles [23].
• Large actin aggregates are seen in association with centrosomes in mature primary spermatocytes [24].

Associations of Spermatocytes with chemical compounds

• We report the androgen dependency of Cbl as it localizes in pachytene spermatocytes during androgen-dependent stages, is down-regulated upon flutamide exposure, and is up-regulated with testosterone in hypophysectomized rats [25].
• Here, we show that treatment of mutant males with cisplatin restores RAD51 loading, suggesting that mutant spermatocytes have intact recombinational repair mechanisms [26].
• Cyclic GMP is also seen on chromosomes of premeiotic spermatocytes and in sperm [27].
• SREBP2gc is selectively enriched in spermatocytes and spermatids, and, due to its novel structure, its synthesis is not subject to cholesterol feedback control [28].
• Observations show that busulfan selectively destroys differentiating spermatogonia whereas some of the spermatocytes present at the moment of cytotoxic insult are able to continue differentiation [29].

Gene context of Spermatocytes

• Unexpectedly, Sycp1(-/-) spermatocytes did not form XY bodies [18].
• Consistent with this observation, we show that Slc12a2 is expressed in Sertoli cells, pachytene spermatocytes, and round spermatids isolated from wild-type animals [30].
• Distribution of the Rad51 recombinase in human and mouse spermatocytes [31].
• To clone genes that mediate the translational repression or activation of the Prm-1 mRNA, we screened cDNA expression libraries made with RNA from pachytene spermatocytes and round spermatids, with an RNA probe corresponding to the 3' UTR of Prm-1 [32].
• Pcnt is found in spermatocyte IFT fractions, and IFT proteins are found in isolated centrosome fractions [33].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Spermatocytes

• The MLH3 gene is expressed in mouse meiotic cells and in human testis, and, as revealed by immunoprecipitation assays, the MLH3 protein is found in mouse spermatocytes [34].
• Fluorescent in situ hybridization and synaptonemal complex (SC) immunostaining of structurally preserved spermatocytes I revealed that telomere clustering occurs aberrantly in Atm-/- mice [35].
• Using electron microscopy and immunolocalization of meiotic proteins in mutant adult spermatocytes, we found that male and female gametogenesis is severely disrupted in Atm-deficient mice as early as leptonema of prophase I, resulting in apoptotic degeneration [36].
• In situ hybridization experiments in human testis demonstrate a specific expression of mgcRacGAP mRNA in spermatocytes similar to that of rotundRacGAP in Drosophila testis [37].
• Molecular cloning of the mRNAs associated with Sam68 in mouse spermatocytes reveals a subset of genes that might be posttranscriptionally regulated by this RNA-binding protein during spermatogenesis [38].

References