Gordon Dixon, protamines, and the atypical patterns of gene expression in spermatogenic cells

ABSTRACT

Gordon Dixon’s pioneering work on the replacement of histones by protamines during spermatogenesis inspired research as recombinant DNA became widely used to analyze gene expression in mammalian spermatogenic cells. The impact of recombinant DNA began immediately with the identification of mouse protamine 1 as a haploid-expressed mRNA, resolving a decades-long controversy whether gene expression in haploid spermatogenic cells distorts transmission of alleles to progeny. Numerous insights into the biology of spermatogenesis followed as the sequences of many mRNAs revealed that the patterns of gene expression in spermatogenic cells are astonishingly different from those in other cells in the mammalian body. Studies of these phenomena have generated fundamental insights across reproductive, molecular and evolutionary biology.

Abbreviations: PRM1: protamine 1; PRM2: protamine 2; TCE: translation control element

KEYWORDS:

• Gordon Dixon
• protamines
• gene expression
• translational regulation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.