Note: This meeting will be in W2015, one of the small classrooms on the SPH 2nd floor facing Wolfe St.
Melanie from the Matunis lab will be presenting:
Kanatsu-Shinohara et al., Homing of Mouse Spermatogonial Stem Cells to Germline Niche Depends on β1-Integrin
Cell Stem Cell, 3:533-542 (November 6, 2008)
Here is her comment on this paper:
"A key characteristic of stem cells is their ability to migrate back to and repopulate their niches. For example, following male germ cell transplantation in mice, infertile testes quickly regain spermatogenesis. This paper shows how spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) home back into and migrate into the niche in a β1-integrin-dependent manner where they reinitiate and maintain spermatogenesis.
This paper is relevant to our work because stem cell adhesion to a niche is a universal feature of stem cells and because we find that integrin plays a role in the coordinate regulation of the two known stem cell types in the Drosophila spermatogonial niche: the germline stem cells (GSCs) and cyst progenitor cells (CPCs), which both require cell autonomous JAK/STAT pathway activation for their maintenance."
Friday, March 13, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
March 3 journal club
Matt from the Evans lab will be presenting. This is the plug he gave me (is it just me, or does this sound like one of the guys who writes the weekly plugs for the JHSPH happy hour?) --
"For this week I'm actually going to present a combination of two papers. Now, before you get irritated that you have to read two papers, hear me out. First off, they aren't too long. And secondly, they are really good and important papers:
The immunoglobulin superfamily protein Izumo is required for sperm to fuse with eggs (Nature, 2005)
Putative sperm fusion protein IZUMO and the role of N-glycosylation (BBRC, 2008)
Both papers were published by Masaru Okabe's group at the Genome Information Research Center at Osaka University. The main paper I'm presenting was published in Nature back in 2005, and was really influential because it gave new insight into the mechanism of sperm-egg fusion (Nature 434:234). The paper identified an IgSF family member, Izumo, as the first and only sperm protein to date shown to be completely essential for sperm-egg fusion. The second paper I will be discussing is a follow up paper published in October 2008. This paper explored the role that a conserved N-glycolsylation site played in Izumo function (BBRC 377:910). Despite the fact that Izumo is by far the most interesting molecular candidate on the sperm to mediate sperm-egg fusion, we still don't know much about how it functions. Therefore, I'll be discussing some of my work that focuses on the role that tyrosine O-sulfation, an understudied post-translational modification, may play in Izumo function.
Hopefully, you all will find the story as interesting as I do. I'll also go into the interesting history behind where Izumo got its name, how it was identified after sitting in a freezer for over 10 years, and some of the work that has gone into trying to make a vaccine using Izumo as the antigen.
Definitely take a look at the first paper from 2005, and if you have time, look over the second."
"For this week I'm actually going to present a combination of two papers. Now, before you get irritated that you have to read two papers, hear me out. First off, they aren't too long. And secondly, they are really good and important papers:
The immunoglobulin superfamily protein Izumo is required for sperm to fuse with eggs (Nature, 2005)
Putative sperm fusion protein IZUMO and the role of N-glycosylation (BBRC, 2008)
Both papers were published by Masaru Okabe's group at the Genome Information Research Center at Osaka University. The main paper I'm presenting was published in Nature back in 2005, and was really influential because it gave new insight into the mechanism of sperm-egg fusion (Nature 434:234). The paper identified an IgSF family member, Izumo, as the first and only sperm protein to date shown to be completely essential for sperm-egg fusion. The second paper I will be discussing is a follow up paper published in October 2008. This paper explored the role that a conserved N-glycolsylation site played in Izumo function (BBRC 377:910). Despite the fact that Izumo is by far the most interesting molecular candidate on the sperm to mediate sperm-egg fusion, we still don't know much about how it functions. Therefore, I'll be discussing some of my work that focuses on the role that tyrosine O-sulfation, an understudied post-translational modification, may play in Izumo function.
Hopefully, you all will find the story as interesting as I do. I'll also go into the interesting history behind where Izumo got its name, how it was identified after sitting in a freezer for over 10 years, and some of the work that has gone into trying to make a vaccine using Izumo as the antigen.
Definitely take a look at the first paper from 2005, and if you have time, look over the second."
Thursday, February 5, 2009
Feb. 17 journal club
Mouse differentiating spermatogonia can generate germinal stem cells in vivo
Barroca et al., Nature Cell Biology 11, 190 - 196 (2008)
Becca from the Matunis lab will be presenting. Here's what she says about the paper:
"Basically I chose this paper because it demonstrates that differentiating spermatogonia have the potential to reconstitute spermatogensis in gamma-irradiated mouse testes. It suggests that in the permissive microenvironment and with the appropriate cellular factors, differentiating spermatogonia can be re-programmed into germline stem cells.
This paper is directly relevant to my research as I am trying to understand the mechanism of dedifferentiation using Drosophila spermatogensis as a model system. Our system is especially useful because we know the precise location of the stem cell niche and have cellular markers that distinguish germline stem cells from their immediate daughters. We are also able to genetically manipulate the niche, and recently, we have developed methods to image the niche live in order to observe the cellular rearrangements that occur during dedifferentiation."
Barroca et al., Nature Cell Biology 11, 190 - 196 (2008)
Becca from the Matunis lab will be presenting. Here's what she says about the paper:
"Basically I chose this paper because it demonstrates that differentiating spermatogonia have the potential to reconstitute spermatogensis in gamma-irradiated mouse testes. It suggests that in the permissive microenvironment and with the appropriate cellular factors, differentiating spermatogonia can be re-programmed into germline stem cells.
This paper is directly relevant to my research as I am trying to understand the mechanism of dedifferentiation using Drosophila spermatogensis as a model system. Our system is especially useful because we know the precise location of the stem cell niche and have cellular markers that distinguish germline stem cells from their immediate daughters. We are also able to genetically manipulate the niche, and recently, we have developed methods to image the niche live in order to observe the cellular rearrangements that occur during dedifferentiation."
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Feb. 3 journal club
For our upcoming meeting on Feb. 3, Erin from the Zirkin lab will be presenting a tale on Leydig cells. The paper is:
Tang et al., Notch signaling maintains Leydig cell progenitor cells in the mouse testis
... which is recent work from Blanche Capel's lab on Notch signaling and fetal Leydig cells. Erin works on Leydig stem cells in the adult (with a bonus focus on how these are affected by aging), and she'll use this paper to highlight some differences -- or at least to remind us that the assumption cannot be made that fetal and adult Leydig cells are the exact same beasts!
See you Tuesday at 12:30 in E2133 (remember that we are in a different room from where we usually meet for the next three meetings).
Tang et al., Notch signaling maintains Leydig cell progenitor cells in the mouse testis
... which is recent work from Blanche Capel's lab on Notch signaling and fetal Leydig cells. Erin works on Leydig stem cells in the adult (with a bonus focus on how these are affected by aging), and she'll use this paper to highlight some differences -- or at least to remind us that the assumption cannot be made that fetal and adult Leydig cells are the exact same beasts!
See you Tuesday at 12:30 in E2133 (remember that we are in a different room from where we usually meet for the next three meetings).
Monday, January 12, 2009
Enjoy Inauguration Day (Jan. 20 presentation moved)
So that you can tune in to watch or listen to the events of the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, we will move that day's journal club.
Bill Wright will be doing his journal club presentation on May 12.
Bill Wright will be doing his journal club presentation on May 12.
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
January 6 meeting
Paper to be discussed at the Jan. 6 meeting:
The fusing ability of sperm is bestowed by CD9-containing vesicles released from eggs in mice, Miyado et al., PNAS 105:12291-12926
[get paper here]
The egg membrane protein CD9 was identified as a critical player in mammalian gamete membrane fusion through mouse knockout studies (published in 2000 by three different groups [link to one of these papers]). However, few details of the actual function of CD9 in gamete fusion have been characterized. This paper suggests a novel and unexpected role of CD9, and we'll use this as a springboard to discuss a some other issues in the field of sperm-egg interaction (and highlighting a couple of findings from our lab).
The fusing ability of sperm is bestowed by CD9-containing vesicles released from eggs in mice, Miyado et al., PNAS 105:12291-12926
[get paper here]
The egg membrane protein CD9 was identified as a critical player in mammalian gamete membrane fusion through mouse knockout studies (published in 2000 by three different groups [link to one of these papers]). However, few details of the actual function of CD9 in gamete fusion have been characterized. This paper suggests a novel and unexpected role of CD9, and we'll use this as a springboard to discuss a some other issues in the field of sperm-egg interaction (and highlighting a couple of findings from our lab).
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