ArticleBMC evolutionary biology2016
Selective constraints on protamine 2 in primates and rodents.
Article in BMC evolutionary biology, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Rapid protamine evolution suppresses meiotic drive inScience advances · 2026Article
- The jewel wasp Nasonia vitripennis utilizes two single-copy, protamine-like sperm nuclear basic proteins.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2026Article
- Non-human primates as a translational model for the study of male reproductive health.Nature reviews. Urology · 2025Review
- Article
- Small noncoding RNAs and sperm nuclear basic proteins reflect the environmental impact on germ cells.Molecular medicine (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- RNA quality and protamine gene expression after storage of mouse testes under different conditions.PloS one · 2024Article
- Actl7b deficiency leads to mislocalization of LC8 type dynein light chains and disruption of murine spermatogenesis.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2023Article
- Article
- Loss of Prm1 leads to defective chromatin protamination, impaired PRM2 processing, reduced sperm motility and subfertility in male mice.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2022Article
- Loss of the cleaved-protamine 2 domain leads to incomplete histone-to-protamine exchange and infertility in mice.PLoS genetics · 2022Article
- Sperm bauplan and function and underlying processes of sperm formation and selection.Physiological reviews · 2022Review
- Transcriptome analysis of turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) reproductive tract revealed key pathways regulating spermatogenesis and post-testicular sperm maturation.Poultry science · 2020Article
- Evolutionary analysis of genes coding for Cysteine-RIch Secretory Proteins (CRISPs) in mammals.BMC evolutionary biology · 2020Article
- Entropy based analysis of vertebrate sperm protamines sequences: evidence of potential dityrosine and cysteine-tyrosine cross-linking in sperm protamines.BMC genomics · 2020Article
- Population-specific, recent positive directional selection suggests adaptation of human male reproductive genes to different environmental conditions.BMC evolutionary biology · 2020Article
- Epigenetic changes in mammalian gametes throughout their lifetime: the four seasons metaphor.Chromosoma · 2019Review
- Re-visiting the Protamine-2 locus: deletion, but not haploinsufficiency, renders male mice infertile.Scientific reports · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundProtamines are sperm nuclear proteins with a crucial role in chromatin condensation. Their function is strongly linked to sperm head morphology and male fertility. Protamines appear to be affected by a complex pattern of selective constraints. Previous studies showed that sexual selection affects protamine coding sequence and expression in rodents. Here we analyze selective constraints and post-copulatory sexual selection acting on protamine 2 (Prm2) gene sequences of 53 species of primates and rodents. We focused on possible differences in selective constraints between these two clades and on the two functional domains of PRM2 (cleaved- and mature-PRM2). We also assessed if and how changes in Prm2 coding sequence may affect sperm head dimensions.
resultsThe domain of Prm2 that is cleaved off during binding to DNA (cleaved-Prm2) was found to be under purifying selection in both clades, whereas the domain that remains bound to DNA (mature-Prm2) was found to be positively selected in primates and under relaxed constraint in rodents. Changes in cleaved-Prm2 coding sequence are significantly correlated to sperm head width and elongation in rodents. Contrary to expectations, a significant effect of sexual selection was not found on either domain or clade.
conclusionsMature-PRM2 may be free to evolve under less constraint due to the existence of PRM1 as a more conserved and functionally redundant copy. The cleaved-PRM2 domain seems to play an important role in sperm head shaping. However, sexual selection on its sequence may be difficult to detect until it is identified which sperm head phenotype (shape and size) confers advantages for sperm performance in different mammalian clades.
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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.