ArticlePLoS biology2019
Human sperm displays rapid responses to diet.
Article in PLoS biology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 110 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
110 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 214 citations in OpenAlex.
- The effect of healthy dietary patterns on male semen quality: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Asian journal of andrologyPooled it
- qMAP decodes RNA fragmentation dynamics in development and disease.Molecular systems biology · 2026Article
- Epigenetics in development, disease, and therapy: from mechanisms to clinical interventions.Science China. Life sciences · 2026Review
- tRNA methylation: functional insights and epitranscriptomic regulation.Cell communication and signaling : CCS · 2026Review
- Breed-specific divergence in boar sperm regulatory profiles involves piRNA and mitochondrial small RNAs.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2026Article
- AMPK inhibition and elevated angiogenin are associated with tRNA fragmentation in the male germline exposed to a high-fat diet.Molecular metabolism · 2026Article
- Periconceptional ultra-processed food consumption in women and men, fertility, and early embryonic development.Human reproduction (Oxford, England) · 2026Article
- A Review of the Effects of Maternal and Paternal Obesity on Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Related Neurobiology in Rodent and Human Offspring.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2026Review
- Sperm sncRNA networks are synchronized by a coordination between adverse childhood experiences (ACE) and current stress.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Epigenetic Legacy: The Role of Sperm miRNAs in the Paternal Inheritance of Diabetes and Obesity Development.Diabetes/metabolism research and reviews · 2026Review
- Male obesity causes adipose mitochondrial dysfunction in FNature communications · 2026Article
- Conserved shifts in sperm small non-coding RNA profiles during mouse and human aging.The EMBO journal · 2026Article
- Environmental influences on seminal plasma: Molecular and functional insights.The Journal of reproduction and development · 2026Review
- Environmental and Genetic Perturbations of the Sperm Epigenome.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Dad's Diet Shapes the Future: How Paternal Nutrition Impacts Placental Development and Childhood Metabolic Health.Molecular nutrition & food research · 2025Review
- Epididymal dynamics and preimplantation roles of a sperm-enriched 5' fragment of tRNA-valine.Cell reports · 2025Article
- Impact of physical activity on semen quality: a review of current evidence.Asian journal of andrology · 2025Review
- Landscape of extracellular small RNA and identification of biomarkers in multiple human cancers.iScience · 2025Article
- Beyond Genes: Mechanistic and Epidemiological Insights into Paternal Environmental Influence on Offspring Health.Current environmental health reports · 2025Review
- Episodic Exposure to Eucalyptus Smoke during Sperm Maturation Impairs Sperm Motility in Long Evans Rats.Environmental science & technology · 2025Article
50 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
19 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The global rise in obesity and steady decline in sperm quality are two alarming trends that have emerged during recent decades. In parallel, evidence from model organisms shows that paternal diet can affect offspring metabolic health in a process involving sperm tRNA-derived small RNA (tsRNA). Here, we report that human sperm are acutely sensitive to nutrient flux, both in terms of sperm motility and changes in sperm tsRNA. Over the course of a 2-week diet intervention, in which we first introduced a healthy diet followed by a diet rich in sugar, sperm motility increased and stabilized at high levels. Small RNA-seq on repeatedly sampled sperm from the same individuals revealed that tsRNAs were up-regulated by eating a high-sugar diet for just 1 week. Unsupervised clustering identified two independent pathways for the biogenesis of these tsRNAs: one involving a novel class of fragments with specific cleavage in the T-loop of mature nuclear tRNAs and the other exclusively involving mitochondrial tsRNAs. Mitochondrial involvement was further supported by a similar up-regulation of mitochondrial rRNA-derived small RNA (rsRNA). Notably, the changes in sugar-sensitive tsRNA were positively associated with simultaneous changes in sperm motility and negatively associated with obesity in an independent clinical cohort. This rapid response to a dietary intervention on tsRNA in human sperm is attuned with the paternal intergenerational metabolic responses found in model organisms. More importantly, our findings suggest shared diet-sensitive mechanisms between sperm motility and the biogenesis of tsRNA, which provide novel insights about the interplay between nutrition and male reproductive health.
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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.