PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Wen-Long Lei
AU  - Zongchang Du
AU  - Tie-Gang Meng
AU  - Ruibao Su
AU  - Yuan-Yuan Li
AU  - Wenbo Liu
AU  - Si-Min Sun
AU  - Meng-Yu Liu
AU  - Yi Hou
AU  - Chun-Hui Zhang
AU  - Yaoting Gui
AU  - Heide Schatten
AU  - Zhiming Han
AU  - Chenli Liu
AU  - Zhen-Bo Wang
AU  - Wei-Ping Qian
AU  - Qing-Yuan Sun
TI  - SRSF2 is required for mRNA splicing and spermatogenesis
AID  - 10.1101/2022.09.20.508723
DP  - 2022 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2022.09.20.508723
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/09/21/2022.09.20.508723.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/09/21/2022.09.20.508723.full
AB  - RNA splicing plays significant roles in fundamental biological activities. However, our knowledge about the roles of alternative splicing and underlying mechanisms during spermatogenesis is limited. Here, we report that Serine/arginine-rich splicing factor 2 (SRSF2), also known as SC35, plays critical roles in alternative splicing and male reproduction. Male germ cell-specific deletion of Srsf2 by Stra8-Cre caused complete infertility and defective spermatogenesis. Further analyses revealed that deletion of Srsf2 disrupted differentiation and meiosis initiation of spermatogonia. Mechanistically, by combining RNA-seq data with LACE-seq data, we showed that SRSF2 regulatory networks play critical roles in several major events including reproductive development, spermatogenesis, meiotic cell cycle, synapse organization, DNA recombination, chromosome segregation, and male sex differentiation. Furthermore, SRSF2 affected expression and alternative splicing of Stra8, Stag3 and Atr encoding critical factors for spermatogenesis in a direct manner. Taken together, our results demonstrate that SRSF2 has important functions in spermatogenesis and male fertility by regulating alternative splicing.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.