Sperm long noncoding RNAs are active in zygotic genome activation and aberrantly expressed in multiple cancers

For long, sperm considered a passive vehicle, merely transmitting the paternal genome into oocyte during fertilization. Contrary to the prevailing view on sperm, Prof. Chandrasekhar kanduri lab and the team have shown that sperm-specific lncRNAs carrying distinct chromatin patterns are active during zygotic genome activation in preimplantation developmental stages (human and mouse). Additionally, this study found an inverse correlation between sperm-specific and sperm-oocyte commonly expressed lncRNAs throughout the stages of human development. Additionally, sperm lncRNAs also show aberrant activation in tumors.  Overall, this study reveals that sperm transcripts carrying chromatin imprints may play an important role in human development and cancer.

Reference article:

Subhash S, Kanduri M, Kanduri C. Sperm Originated Chromatin Imprints and LincRNAs in Organismal Development and Cancer. iScience. 2020;23(6):101165. DOI:10.1016/j.isci.2020.101165 [Cell] [Pubmed]