What is it about?
Normally, DNA is tightly wrapped and shielded, but it can be unwrapped under certain conditions. We discovered that regulating when and how DNA is unwrapped is crucial for sperm production and male fertility. A protein named SMARCA5 plays a key role in this regulation. SMARCA5 works with DNA repair systems to safeguard DNA during meiosis, a specialized cell division process that occurs only in developing sperm and eggs. Without SMARCA5, mice cannot finish meiosis, cannot produce sperm and are infertile.
Featured Image
Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Sperm carry the heritable genome from father to child. The molecular factors that guide normal sperm production are essential for male fertility and can influence the information that is inherited between generations. The factor described in this study may help us understand why some men are infertile, or why they pass disease-causing mutations on to their offspring.
Perspectives
This article was a true collaboration among authors with different skills and perspectives. I believe this collaboration allowed us to gain insights none of us would have arrived at independently.
Bluma Lesch
Yale University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: SMARCA5 restricts chromatin accessibility to promote male meiosis and fertility in mammals, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, July 2025, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2422356122.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
