RNA IN SPERMATOZOA - IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ALTERNATIVE HAPLOID GENOME

The presence of specific messenger RNAs in the nuclei of mature mammal ian spermatozoa has been demonstrated by several independent laborator ies, Others have suggested that various polymerases may also be active in mature spermatozoa. This has led to the notion that the 'sleeping' genome may not be so quiescent after all, The alternate use of somati c-like nucleosomal and haploid protamine packaging structures to assem ble sperm chromatin and the ordered array of chromosomes within the ma ture human sperm nucleus support this view, This has led us to address the issue of whether a somatic-like organization of select regions of the paternal genome and the mRNAs present in spermatozoa were correla ted, Results from this and other laboratories suggest that this is ind eed the case, Potential roles for this novel packaging and the accumul ation of transcripts within the mature human sperm nucleus are discuss ed.