Presenter(s): Cailan Feingold
Faculty Mentor(s): Diana E Libuda & Cori C. Cahoon
Poster 63
Session: Sciences
Male fertility defects affect approximately one-third of couples who are unable to conceive, however many of the male-specific mechanisms that contribute to infertility are unknown. Spermatogenesis, unlike oogenesis and other developmental processes, is sensitive to temperature changes and requires a narrow isotherm of 2-7°C below core body temperature. Exposing spermatogenesis to elevated temperature conditions, both physiological and environmental, have been linked to increased risks of testicular cancer and male infertility. Despite these defects, the mechanisms behind heat-induced male infertility are unknown. In Caenorhabditis elegans, heat stress causes sperm-specific increases in DNA damage and destabilization of the chromosome structures essential for meiotic chromosome segregation. Notably, the largest increase in heat-stress induced DNA damage occurs during late prophase I, which coincides with the stage when the chromosome structures are prematurely lost. Therefore, the proteins involved in establishing these chromosome structures might play a direct role in preventing and/or limiting heat-induced DNA damage. However, the relationship between heat-induced DNA damage and chromosome structures has only been examined using static fixed images, which fail to demonstrate the progression of DNA damage and chromosome structure breakdown relative to one another. To understand the dynamic relationship between heat-induced DNA damage and chromosome structures, fluorescently tagged versions of a DNA damage protein (RAD-51) and a structural protein (SYP-3) will be made and live imaged in whole animals undergoing spermatogenesis both with and without heat stress. Overall, these experiments will determine whether chromosome structure instability directly impacts genome integrity during heat stress in developing spermatocytes.