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Mitochondria from ejaculated human spermatozoa do not synthesize proteins
Author(s) -
Dı́ez-Sánchez Carmen,
Ruiz-Pesini Eduardo,
Montoya Julio,
Pérez-Martos Acisclo,
Enrı́quez José Antonio,
López-Pérez Manuel J
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1016/s0014-5793(03)01013-5
Subject(s) - mitochondrion , oxidative phosphorylation , mitochondrial dna , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , sperm , genome , gene , motility , genetics , biochemistry
Sperm motility is dependent on mitochondrial ATP production that relies on the coordinated expression of the mitochondrial and nuclear genomes. It is generally accepted that mammalian ejaculated spermatozoa retain the ability to synthesize mtDNA‐encoded proteins but not most of the nuclear ones. This implies an asynchronous regulation of the oxidative phosphorylation‐related genes encoded by each genome. Trying to investigate this issue, we unexpectedly found that ejaculated human spermatozoa do not synthesize mtDNA‐encoded proteins. Moreover, we estimated that the discrepancy between our observations and those published elsewhere was due to a chloramphenicol‐sensitive protein synthesis attributed to mitochondria that instead corresponds to contaminating bacteria.