• PMID: 25791297
• Gene Name: GTSF1
• Condition: Cryptorchidism, Male infertility
• Association: Associated
• Sex: Male
• Infertility type: Male infertility
• Associated genes: GTSF1, L1 and PIWIL4

Piwi-pathway alteration induces LINE-1 transposon derepression and infertility development in cryptorchidism

Hadziselimovic F, Hadziselimovic NO, Demougin P, Krey G, Oakeley E.

Spermatogonia contain processing bodies that harbor P-element-induced wimpy testis (Piwi) proteins. Piwi proteins are associated specifically with Piwi-interacting RNAs to silence transposable DNA elements. Loss-of-function mutations in the Piwi pathway lead to derepression of transposable elements, resulting in defective spermatogenesis. Furthermore, deletion of gametocyte-specific factor 1 (GTSF1), a factor involved in Piwi-mediated transcriptional repression, causes male-specific sterility and derepression of LINE-1 (L1) retrotransposons. No previous studies have examined GTSF1, L1 and PIWIL4 expression in cryptorchidism. We examined transposon-silencing genes and L1 transposon expression in testicular biopsies with Affymetrix microarrays and immunohistology. Seven members of the Tudor gene family, 3 members of the DEAD-box RNA helicase family, and the GTSF1 gene were found to show significantly lower RNA signals in the high-infertility-risk group. In the immunohistochemical analysis, patients from the low-infertility-risk group showed coherently stronger staining for GTSF1 and PIWIL4 proteins and weaker staining for L1 transposon when compared to the high-infertility-risk samples. These new findings provide first evidence consistent with the idea that infertility in cryptorchidism is a consequence of alterations in the Piwi pathway and transposon derepression induced by the impaired function of mini-puberty. FAU - Hadziselimovic, Faruk AU - Hadziselimovic F AD - Institute for Andrology, Liestal, Switzerland. FAU - Hadziselimovic, Nils O AU - Hadziselimovic NO FAU - Demougin, Philippe AU - Demougin P FAU - Krey, Gunthild AU - Krey G