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Assembly of Nucleosomal Arrays from Recombinant Core Histones and Nucleosome Positioning DNA
Published on: September 10, 2013
In the human sperm nucleus, nucleosomes form spatially restricted domains consistent with programmed nucleosome
Mei-Zi Zhang1, Xiao-Min Cao1, Feng-Qin Xu1
1Reproductive Medicine Center, Tianjin First central hospital, Tianjin 300192, China.
Abstract:
In human sperm, a fraction of its chromatin retains nucleosomes that are positioned on specific sequences containing genes and regulatory units essential for embryonic development. This nucleosome positioning (NP) feature provides an inherited epigenetic mark for sperm. However, it is not known whether there is a structural constraint for these nucleosomes and, if so, how they are localized in a three-dimensional (3D) context of the sperm nucleus. In this study, we examine the 3D organization of sperm chromatin and specifically determine its 3D localization of nucleosomes using structured illumination microscopy. A fraction of the sperm chromatin form nucleosome domains (NDs), visible as microscopic puncta ranging from 40 μm to 700 μm in diameter, and these NDs are precisely localized in the post acrosome region (PAR), outside the sperm's core chromatin. Further, NDs exist mainly in sperm from fertile men in a pilot survey with a small sample size. Together, this study uncovers a new spatially-restricted sub-nuclear structure containing NDs that are consistent with NPs of the sperm, which might represent a novel mark for healthy sperm in human.
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