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. 2022 Jul 1;12(13):1706.
doi: 10.3390/ani12131706.

Comparative Proteomic Analyses of Poorly Motile Swamp Buffalo Spermatozoa Reveal Low Energy Metabolism and Deficiencies in Motility-Related Proteins

Runfeng Liu  1 , Xingchen Huang  1 , Qinqiang Sun  1 , Zhen Hou  1 , Weihan Yang  1 , Junjun Zhang  1 , Pengfei Zhang  1 , Liangfeng Huang  1 , Yangqing Lu  1 , Qiang Fu  1
Affiliations

Comparative Proteomic Analyses of Poorly Motile Swamp Buffalo Spermatozoa Reveal Low Energy Metabolism and Deficiencies in Motility-Related Proteins

Runfeng Liu et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

The acquisition of mammalian sperm motility is a main indicator of epididymal sperm maturation and helps ensure fertilization. Poor sperm motility will prevent sperm cells from reaching the fertilization site, resulting in fertilization failure. To investigate the proteomic profiling of normal and poorly motile buffalo spermatozoa, a strategy applying liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry combined with tandem mass targeting was used. As a result, 145 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were identified in poorly motile spermatozoa (fold change > 1.5), including 52 upregulated and 93 downregulated proteins. The upregulated DEPs were mainly involved in morphogenesis and regulation of cell differentiation. The downregulated DEPs were involved with transport, oxidation-reduction, sperm motility, regulation of cAMP metabolism and regulation of DNA methylation. The mRNA and protein levels of PRM1 and AKAP3 were lower in poorly motile spermatozoa, while the expressions of SDC2, TEKT3 and IDH1 were not correlated with motility, indicating that their protein changes were affected by transcription or translation. Such changes in the expression of these proteins suggest that the formation of poorly motile buffalo spermatozoa reflects a low efficiency of energy metabolism, decreases in sperm protamine proteins, deficiencies in motility-related proteins, and variations in tail structural proteins. Such proteins could be biomarkers of poorly motile spermatozoa. These results illustrate some of the molecular mechanisms associated with poorly motile spermatozoa and provide clues for finding molecular markers of these pathways.

Keywords: LC-MS/MS; buffalo; proteomics; sperm motility; tandem mass targeting.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Comparison of the percentages of motile spermatozoa in normal and poorly motile sperm samples. ** p < 0.01.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Venn diagram of sperm proteomic replicates. Replicate 1 detected 1148 proteins (blue), Replicates 2 detected 1171 proteins (red), and 981 proteins (purple) were replicated twice.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Subcellular classification of DEPs.
Figure 4
Figure 4
GO analysis of DEPs in poorly motile sperm samples. (a) Bar graph showing the numbers of proteins involved in biological processes; (b) bar diagram showing the numbers of proteins involved in molecular functions.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The protein–protein interaction network analysis of DEPs. Note: Only proteins with known interactions were listed. The red and green nodes represent upregulated and downregulated proteins, respectively.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Western blotting and RT–qPCR validation of DEP expression profiles, ** p < 0.01.
Figure 7
Figure 7
The subcellular location and regulatory pathways of DEPs.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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