Expression profiling reveals meiotic male germ cell mRNAs that are translationally up- and down-regulated

Gametes rely heavily on posttranscriptional control mechanisms to regulate their differentiation. In eggs, maternal mRNAs are stored and selectively activated during development. In the male, transcription ceases during spermiogenesis, necessitating the posttranscriptional regulation of many paternal mRNAs required for spermatozoan assembly and function. To date, most of the testicular mRNAs known to be translationally regulated are initially transcribed in postmeiotic cells. Because protein synthesis occurs on polysomes and translationally inactive mRNAs are sequestered as ribonucleoproteins (RNPs), movement of mRNAs between these fractions is indicative of translational up- and down-regulation. Here, we use microarrays to analyze mRNAs in RNPs and polysomes from testis extracts of prepuberal and adult mice to characterize the translation state of individual mRNAs as spermatogenesis proceeds. Consistent with published reports, many of the translationally delayed postmeiotic mRNAs shift from the RNPs into the polysomes, establishing the validity of this approach. In addition, we detect another 742 mouse testicular transcripts that show dramatic shifts between RNPs and polysomes. One subgroup of 35 genes containing the known, translationally delayed phosphoglycerate kinase 2 (Pgk2) is initially transcribed during meiosis and is translated in later-stage cells. Another subgroup of 82 meiotically expressed genes is translationally down-regulated late in spermatogenesis. This high-throughput approach defines the changing translation patterns of populations of genes as male germ cells differentiate and identifies groups of meiotic transcripts that are translationally up- and down-regulated.