Journal
DEVELOPMENT
Volume 147, Issue 22, Pages -Publisher
COMPANY BIOLOGISTS LTD
DOI: 10.1242/dev.193862
Keywords
C. elegans; spermatogenesis; NHR-23; Nuclear hormone receptor; Meiosis; Auxin-inducible degron
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Funding
- National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) [R00GM107345, R15GM096309]
- National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences [1942922]
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Div Of Molecular and Cellular Bioscience [1942922] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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In sexually reproducing metazoans, spermatogenesis is the process by which uncommitted germ cells give rise to haploid sperm. Work in model systems has revealed mechanisms controlling commitment to the sperm fate, but how this fate is subsequently executed remains less clear. While studying the well-established role of the conserved nuclear hormone receptor transcription factor, NHR-23/NR1F1, in regulating C. elegans molting, we discovered that NHR-23/NR1F1 is also constitutively expressed in developing primary spermatocytes and is a critical regulator of spermatogenesis. In this novel role, NHR-23/NR1F1 functions downstream of the canonical sex-determination pathway. Degron-mediated depletion of NHR-23/NR1F1 within hermaphrodite or male germlines causes sterility due to an absence of functional sperm, as depleted animals produce arrested primary spermatocytes rather than haploid sperm. These spermatocytes arrest in prometaphase I and fail to either progress to anaphase or attempt spermatid-residual body partitioning. They make sperm-specific membranous organelles but fail to assemble their major sperm protein into fibrous bodies. NHR-23/NR1F1 appears to function independently of the known SPE-44 gene regulatory network, revealing the existence of an NHR-23/NR1F1-mediated module that regulates the spermatogenesis program.
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