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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Stuttgart, Arkansas » Harry K. Dupree Stuttgart National Aquaculture Research Cntr » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #341406

Research Project: Developing Nutritional, Genetic, and Management Strategies to Enhance Warmwater Finfish Production

Location: Harry K. Dupree Stuttgart National Aquaculture Research Cntr

Title: DNA methylation profiles correlated to striped bass sperm fertility

Author
item WOODS, L. CURRY III - University Of Maryland
item LI, YAOKUN - South China Agricultural University
item DING, YI - University Of Maryland
item LIU, JIANAN - University Of Maryland
item READING, BENJAMIN - North Carolina State University
item Fuller, Adam
item SONG, JIUZHOU - University Of Maryland

Submitted to: BMC Genomics
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/13/2018
Publication Date: 4/10/2018
Citation: Woods, L., Li, Y., Ding, Y., Liu, J., Reading, B.J., Fuller, S.A., Song, J. 2018. DNA methylation profiles correlated to striped bass sperm fertility. BMC Genomics. 19:244.

Interpretive Summary: Striped bass (Morone saxatilis) spermatozoa are used to fertilize the eggs of white bass (Morone chrysops) to produce the preferred hybrid for the striped bass aquaculture industry. Currently, only one source of domestic striped bass juveniles are available to growers that are not obtained from wild-caught parents which makes it impossible to have any genetic improvement in traits of importance to aquaculture. Sperm epigenetic modification has been predicted to be associated with fertility, which could switch genes on and off without changing the DNA sequence itself. DNA methylation is one of the most common epigenetic modification types and changes in sperm epigenetics can be correlated to sub-fertility or infertility in male striped bass. In our present study, we performed DNA methylation analysis of high fertility and low fertility striped bass spermatozoa through MBD-Seq methods. A total of 171 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) were discovered in striped bass sperm correlated to fertility. Based on the analysis of these DMRs, we conducted a functional classification analysis and two important groups of genes were discovered to be related to fertility performance of striped bass. Proteins from the first family (WDR3/UTP12) are involved in forming the sperm flagella apparatus in vertebrates and the second family (GPCRs) is involved in hormonal signaling and regulation of tissue development, proliferation and differentiation. Our results contribute insights into understanding the mechanism of fertility in striped bass, which will provide powerful tools to maximize reproductive efficiencies and to identify those males with superior gametes for this important aquaculture species.

Technical Abstract: Striped bass (Morone saxatilis) spermatozoa are used to fertilize in vitro the eggs of white bass (Morone chrysops) to produce the preferred hybrid for the striped bass aquaculture industry. Currently, only one source of domestic striped bass juveniles are available to growers that are not obtained from wild-caught parents and are thus devoid of any genetic improvement in phenotypic traits of importance to aquaculture. Sperm epigenetic modification has been predicted to be associated with fertility, which could switch genes on and off without changing the DNA sequence itself. DNA methylation is one of the most common epigenetic modification types and changes in sperm epigenetics can be correlated to sub-fertility or infertility in male striped bass. In our present study, we performed DNA methylation analysis of high fertility and sub-fertility striped bass spermatozoa through MBD-Seq methods. A total of 171 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) were discovered in striped bass sperm correlated to fertility. Based on the annotation of these DMRs, we conducted a functional classification analysis and two important groups of genes including the WDR3/UTP12 and GPCR families, were discovered to be related to fertility performance of striped bass. Proteins from the WDR3/UTP12 family are involved in forming the sperm flagella apparatus in vertebrates and GPCRs are involved in hormonal signaling and regulation of tissue development, proliferation and differentiation. Our results contribute insights into understanding the mechanism of fertility in striped bass, which will provide powerful tools to maximize reproductive efficiencies and to identify those males with superior gametes for this important aquaculture species.