Hui-Juan Jin, Yong Fan, Xiaoyu Yang, Yue Dong, Xiao-Zhen Zhang, Xin-Yan Geng, Zheng Yan, Ling Wu, Meng Ma, Bin Li, Qifeng Lyu, Yun Pan, Mingxi Liu, Yanping Kuang, Su-Ren Chen
The perinuclear theca (PT) is a dense cytoplasmic web encapsulating the sperm nucleus. The physiological roles of PT in sperm biology and the clinical relevance of variants of PT proteins to male infertility are still largely unknown. We reveal that cylicin-1, a major constituent of the PT, is vital for male fertility in both mice and humans. Loss of cylicin-1 in mice leads to a high incidence of malformed sperm heads with acrosome detachment from the nucleus. Cylicin-1 interacts with itself, several other PT proteins, the inner acrosomal membrane (IAM) protein SPACA1, and the nuclear envelope (NE) protein FAM209 to form an 'IAM-cylicins-NE' sandwich structure, anchoring the acrosome to the nucleus...
April 4, 2024: ELife