Mathematical model reveals that heterogeneity in the number of ion transporters regulates the fraction of mouse sperm capacitation.

Autor: Aguado-García A; Instituto de Ciencias Básicas y Aplicadas, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México.; Instituto de Ciencias Físicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México., Priego-Espinosa DA; Instituto de Ciencias Físicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México., Aldana A; Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México.; Centro de Ciencias de la Complejidad, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, CDMX, México., Darszon A; Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México., Martínez-Mekler G; Instituto de Ciencias Físicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México.; Centro de Ciencias de la Complejidad, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, CDMX, México.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: PloS one [PLoS One] 2021 Nov 18; Vol. 16 (11), pp. e0245816. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Nov 18 (Print Publication: 2021).
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0245816
Abstrakt: Capacitation is a complex maturation process mammalian sperm must undergo in the female genital tract to be able to fertilize an egg. This process involves, amongst others, physiological changes in flagellar beating pattern, membrane potential, intracellular ion concentrations and protein phosphorylation. Typically, in a capacitation medium, only a fraction of sperm achieve this state. The cause for this heterogeneous response is still not well understood and remains an open question. Here, one of our principal results is to develop a discrete regulatory network, with mostly deterministic dynamics in conjunction with some stochastic elements, for the main biochemical and biophysical processes involved in the early events of capacitation. The model criterion for capacitation requires the convergence of specific levels of a select set of nodes. Besides reproducing several experimental results and providing some insight on the network interrelations, the main contribution of the model is the suggestion that the degree of variability in the total amount and individual number of ion transporters among spermatozoa regulates the fraction of capacitated spermatozoa. This conclusion is consistent with recently reported experimental results. Based on this mathematical analysis, experimental clues are proposed for the control of capacitation levels. Furthermore, cooperative and interference traits that become apparent in the modelling among some components also call for future theoretical and experimental studies.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Databáze: MEDLINE
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