ArticlePLoS genetics2011
TRY-5 is a sperm-activating protease in Caenorhabditis elegans seminal fluid.
Article in PLoS genetics, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 98 citations in OpenAlex.
- Origins of Self-Fertility in ThreeBiology · 2026Review
- TENT-5 polyadenylates and regulates male-specific transcripts in Caenorhabditis elegans.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2026Article
- The intrinsically disordered protein SPE-56 is required for acrosomal-like exocytosis and fertility in Caenorhabditis elegans.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Mitochondria beyond boundaries: from cellular powerhouses to intercellular messengers in health and disease.Science China. Life sciences · 2026Review
- The novel HRD motif kinase SPE-60 is required for sperm development and motility in Caenorhabditis elegans.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Mitopherogenesis, a form of mitochondria-specific ectocytosis, regulates sperm mitochondrial quantity and fertility.Nature cell biology · 2023Article
- Genome-Wide Analysis ofInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Spermiogenesis inBiomolecules · 2023Review
- Proteolysis in Reproduction: Lessons From Gene-Modified Organism Studies.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2022Review
- Zinc is an intracellular signal during sperm activation in Caenorhabditis elegans.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2021Article
- Subcellular patterns of SPE-6 localization reveal unexpected complexities in Caenorhabditis elegans sperm activation and sperm function.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2021Article
- Fisher vs. the Worms: Extraordinary Sex Ratios in Nematodes and the Mechanisms that Produce Them.Cells · 2021Review
- The type II integral ER membrane protein VAP-B homolog in C. elegans is cleaved to release the N-terminal MSP domain to signal non-cell-autonomously.Developmental biology · 2021Article
- Male reproductive toxicity involved in spermatogenesis induced by perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoic acid in Caenorhabditis elegans.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2021Article
- Functionally non-redundant paralogs spe-47 and spe-50 encode FB-MO associated proteins and interact with him-8.PloS one · 2020Article
- Males, Outcrossing, and Sexual Selection inGenetics · 2019Review
- Soma-germ line interactions and a role for muscle in the regulation ofDevelopment (Cambridge, England) · 2018Article
- From "the Worm" to "the Worms" and Back Again: The Evolutionary Developmental Biology of Nematodes.Genetics · 2018Review
- The zinc transporter ZIPT-7.1 regulates sperm activation in nematodes.PLoS biology · 2018Article
- Zinc: A small molecule with a big impact on sperm function.PLoS biology · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Seminal fluid proteins have been shown to play important roles in male reproductive success, but the mechanisms for this regulation remain largely unknown. In Caenorhabditis elegans, sperm differentiate from immature spermatids into mature, motile spermatozoa during a process termed sperm activation. For C. elegans males, sperm activation occurs during insemination of the hermaphrodite and is thought to be mediated by seminal fluid, but the molecular nature of this activity has not been previously identified. Here we show that TRY-5 is a seminal fluid protease that is required in C. elegans for male-mediated sperm activation. We observed that TRY-5::GFP is expressed in the male somatic gonad and is transferred along with sperm to hermaphrodites during mating. In the absence of TRY-5, male seminal fluid loses its potency to transactivate hermaphrodite sperm. However, TRY-5 is not required for either hermaphrodite or male fertility, suggesting that hermaphrodite sperm are normally activated by a distinct hermaphrodite-specific activator to which male sperm are also competent to respond. Within males, TRY-5::GFP localization within the seminal vesicle is antagonized by the protease inhibitor SWM-1. Together, these data suggest that TRY-5 functions as an extracellular activator of C. elegans sperm. The presence of TRY-5 within the seminal fluid couples the timing of sperm activation to that of transfer of sperm into the hermaphrodite uterus, where motility must be rapidly acquired. Our results provide insight into how C. elegans has adopted sex-specific regulation of sperm motility to accommodate its male-hermaphrodite mode of reproduction.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.