Abstract
Alternative splicing (AS) is tightly regulated during cell differentiation and development. AS events are prevalent in the testis, but the splicing regulation in spermatogenesis remains unclear. Here we report that the spliceosome component Bud31 plays a crucial role during spermatogenesis in mice. Germ cell-specific knockout of Bud31 led to loss of spermatogonia and to male infertility. We further demonstrate that Bud31 is required for both spermatogonial stem cell pool maintenance and the initiation of spermatogenesis. SMART-seq revealed that deletion of Bud31 in germ cells causes widespread exon-skipping and intron retention. Particularly, we identified Cdk2 as one of the direct splicing targets of Bud31, knockout of Bud31 resulted in retention of the first intron of Cdk2, which led to a decrease in Cdk2 expression. Our findings suggest that Bud31-mediated AS within spermatogonial stem cells regulates the self-renewal and differentiation of male germ cells in mammals.
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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Translational Medicine Core Facility of Shandong University for consultation and instrument availability that supported this work. We also thank the Laboratory Animal Center of Shandong University for mouse housing and care.
Funding
This work was supported by National Key R&D Program of China (2020YFA0804400). National Natural Science Foundation of China (81972437, 81672578, 82071854). This study is also supported by the Taishan Scholars Program of Shandong Province.
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Conception and design: JQ, HL, and ZL. Development and methodology: JQ, TH, JW, YZ, and QD. Acquisition of data: JQ, TH, ZW, JW, DC, and XW. Analysis and interpretation of data: JQ, TH, ZW, GL, XZ, SL, and ZL. Administrative, technical, or material support: GL, XZ, SL, HL, and ZL. Study supervision: HL and ZL. Writing, review, and/or revision of the manuscript: All authors. Final approval: All authors.
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Qin, J., Huang, T., Wang, Z. et al. Bud31-mediated alternative splicing is required for spermatogonial stem cell self-renewal and differentiation. Cell Death Differ 30, 184–194 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41418-022-01057-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41418-022-01057-1
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