ArticleNature communications2025
DNA methylation modulates nucleosome retention in sperm and H3K4 methylation deposition in early mouse embryos.
Article in Nature communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- Sperm AluY Epimutations in Male Partners of Couples with Unexplained Recurrent Pregnancy Loss.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- TET1 noncatalytic activity shapes the chromatin landscape associated with de novo methylation establishment in the male germline.Genes & development · 2026Article
- The eutherian-specific histone H3.4 promotes germ cell development and reproductive fitness.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Clinical Implications of Paternal Age in Assisted Reproduction: Integrating Sperm Epigenetic Evidence.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- The bull sperm epigenome: role in male fertility and transmission to the offspring.The Journal of reproduction and development · 2026Review
- Roles of different methylation modifications in cardiovascular disease.Frontiers of medicine · 2025Review
- A father's legacy: the sperm epigenome, preimplantation development, and paternal environment.Epigenomics · 2025Review
- The Nuclear Localization of ACLY Guards Early Embryo Development Through Recruiting P300 and HAT1 to Promote Histone Acetylation and Transcription.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Unmasking the Epigenome: Insights into Testicular Cell Dynamics and Reproductive Function.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- The histone H3 lysine 36 demethylase KDM2A/FBXL11 controls Polycomb-mediated gene repression and germ cell development in male mice.Nature communications · 2025Article
- DNA Methylation: A Key Regulator in Male and Female Reproductive Outcomes.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Normozoospermic infertile men possess subpopulations of sperm varying in DNA accessibility, relating to differing reproductive outcomes.Human reproduction (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- Site-specific DNA demethylation during spermatogenesis presets the sites of nucleosome retention in mouse sperm.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Epigenetic Disruption as a Molecular Signature in Idiopathic Nonobstructive Azoospermia.American journal of men's healthArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
In the germ line and during early embryogenesis, DNA methylation (DNAme) undergoes global erasure and re-establishment to support germ cell and embryonic development. While DNAme acquisition during male germ cell development is essential for setting genomic DNA methylation imprints, other intergenerational roles for paternal DNAme in defining embryonic chromatin are unknown. Through conditional gene deletion of the de novo DNA methyltransferases Dnmt3a and/or Dnmt3b, we observe that DNMT3A primarily safeguards against DNA hypomethylation in undifferentiated spermatogonia, while DNMT3B catalyzes de novo DNAme during spermatogonial differentiation. Failing de novo DNAme in Dnmt3a/Dnmt3b double deficient spermatogonia is associated with increased nucleosome occupancy in mature sperm, preferentially at sites with higher CpG content, supporting the model that DNAme modulates nucleosome retention in sperm. To assess the impact of altered sperm chromatin in formatting embryonic chromatin, we measure H3K4me3 occupancy at paternal and maternal alleles in 2-cell embryos using a transposon-based tagging approach. Our data show that reduced DNAme in sperm renders paternal alleles permissive for H3K4me3 establishment in early embryos, independently of possible paternal inheritance of sperm born H3K4me3. Together, this study provides evidence that paternally inherited DNAme directs chromatin formation during early embryonic development.
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