Specialized Sperm Ribosomes Are Key to Male Fertility in Mice

A previously unknown kind of ribosome is responsible for folding sperm proteins, which decay before fertilization if prepared by other ribosomes.

Written byDan Robitzski

| 4 min read

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Artist’s rendition of the molecular structure of a ribosome (blue and purple) as it produces a polypeptide chain (red) from an mRNA template (orange and gray), with tRNA molecules (dark purple) shuttling amino acids.

Image credit:© ISTOCK.COM, SELVANEGRA

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A newly discovered type of ribosome, which synthesizes and then neatly and securely folds the proteins in sperm to prepare them for their arduous journey, seems to play a key role in male reproductive health, according to a mouse study published yesterday (December 14) in Nature. In the absence of the ribosome identified by the researchers, dubbed Ribosome^ST, male fertility plummeted, and in vitro tests suggest that’s because the ribosome packages proteins in a special way that enables them to last long enough to achieve fertilization.

“We need more basic science like this to understand the fundamental biology of sperm,” Kaitlyn Webster, a reproductive developmental biologist at Harvard Medical School who didn’t work on the study, tells The Scientist over email, adding that she was intrigued by the finding that protein folding plays such an important role in ensuring that sperm stay stable for as long as needed. “This knowledge ...

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Meet the Author

Dan Robitzski
Dan is an award-winning journalist based in Los Angeles who joined The Scientist as a reporter and editor in 2021. Ironically, Dan’s undergraduate degree and brief career in neuroscience inspired him to write about research rather than conduct it, culminating in him earning a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University in 2017. In 2018, an Undark feature Dan and colleagues began at NYU on a questionable drug approval decision at the FDA won first place in the student category of the Association of Health Care Journalists' Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. Now, Dan writes and edits stories on all aspects of the life sciences for the online news desk, and he oversees the “The Literature” and “Modus Operandi” sections of the monthly TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. Read more of his work at danrobitzski.com.
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