ACTA VETERINARIA ET ZOOTECHNICA SINICA ›› 2017, Vol. 48 ›› Issue (9): 1665-1673.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2017.09.011

Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of Staphylococcus aureus on Motility and Protein Phosphorylation Modification of Boar Sperm during Storage in vitro

LI Yu-hua, FU Jie-li, LI Pei-fei, YANG Qiang-zhen, WANG Li-rui, XIE Wei-yi, LI Xin-hong*   

  1. Shanghai Key Laboratory of Veterinary Biotechnology, School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200240, China
  • Received:2017-04-05 Online:2017-09-23 Published:2017-09-23

Abstract:

This study aimed to investigate the effects of S. aureus on boar sperm motility during storage at 17℃ from the perspectives of sperm metabolism and protein phosphorylation modification levels, and provide a theoretical basis for the molecular mechanisms underlying the study of pathogens on sperm quality. Sperm motility parameters were determined using computer assisted sperm analysis (CASA) and the varying of intracellular glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) activity, cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) content and totally ATP level were measured by reagent kits. Protein phosphorylation levels and the localization of phosphorylated targets were analyzed by Western blot and immunofluorescence technique, respectively. The results of CASA showed that 103 CFU·mL-1 S. aureus-treated could significantly inhibit sperm motility during boar semen storage at 17℃ (P<0.05). With the increase of S.aureus, sperm motility parameters were significantly decreased after 3 days of inoculation (P<0.01). Similarly, GAPDH activity and ATP level in the treatment groups were also markedly decreased compared to that in the control groups after 3 days of inoculation (P<0.05). The results of Western blot showed that there were significant differences in sperm protein phosphorylation levels between the treatment groups and the control groups (P<0.05). The changing trends of phosphorylation levels were consistent with that of intracellular cAMP level, which suggested that S.aureus affecting protein phosphorylation levels might following the sAC-cAMP-PKA signaling pathway. Taken together, S.aureus reduced intracellular ATP content through lowering glycolytic GAPDH activity, meanwhile, S.aureus inhibited the phosphorylation levels of motility-related proteins located in the posterior nucleus, equatorial piece and flagellar regions of boar sperm following the sAC-cAMP-PKA signaling pathway. Both the reduction of ATP and the inhibition of protein phosphorylation levels led to the decrease of boar sperm motility.

CLC Number: