Cancer testis antigens (CTAs) are a collection of proteins whose expression is normally restricted to the gamete but abnormally activated in a wide variety of tumors. The CTA, Testis-specific serine kinase 6 (TSSK6), is essential for male fertility in mice. The functional relevance of TSSK6 to cancer, if any, has not previously been investigated. Here we find that TSSK6 is frequently anomalously expressed in colorectal cancer and patients with elevated TSSK6 expression have reduced relapse-free survival. Depletion of TSSK6 from colorectal cancer cells attenuates anchorage-independent growth, invasion, and growth in vivo. Conversely, overexpression of TSSK6 enhances anchorage independence and invasion in vitro as well as in vivo tumor growth. Notably, ectopic expression of TSSK6 in semi-transformed human colonic epithelial cells is sufficient to confer anchorage independence and enhance invasion. In somatic cells, TSSK6 co-localizes with and enhances the formation of paxillin and tensin-positive foci at the cell periphery, suggesting a function in focal adhesion formation. Importantly, TSSK6 kinase activity is essential to induce these tumorigenic behaviors. Our findings establish that TSSK6 exhibits oncogenic activity when abnormally expressed in colorectal cancer cells. Thus, TSSK6 is a previously unrecognized intervention target for therapy, which could exhibit an exceptionally broad therapeutic window.

Non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) is one of the most important causes of male infertility. It is mainly characterized by the absence of sperm in semen repeatedly or the number of sperm is small and not fully developed. At present, its pathogenesis remains largely unknown. The goal of this study is to identify hub genes that might affect biomarkers related to spermatogenesis. Using the clinically significant transcriptome and single-cell sequencing data sets on the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database, we identified candidate hub genes related to spermatogenesis. Based on them, we performed Gene Ontology (GO) functional enrichment analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment pathway analyses, protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis, principal component analysis (PCA), cell cluster analysis, and pseudo-chronological analysis. We identified a total of 430 differentially expressed genes, of which three have not been reported related to spermatogenesis (C22orf23, TSACC, and TTC25), and the expression of these three hub genes was different in each type of sperm cells. The results of the pseudo-chronological analysis of the three hub genes indicated that TTC25 was in a low expression state during the whole process of sperm development, while the expression of C22orf23 had two fluctuations in the differentiating spermatogonia and late primary spermatocyte stages, and TSACC showed an upward trend from the spermatogonial stem cell stage to the spermatogenesis stage. Our research found that the three hub genes were different in the trajectory of sperm development, indicating that they might play important roles in different sperm cells. This result is of great significance for revealing the pathogenic mechanism of NOA and further research.

Spermatogenesis is an important physiological process associated with male infertility. As a kind of post-transcriptional regulation, RNA editings (REs) change the genetic information at the mRNA level. But whether there are REs and what\'s the role of REs during the process are still unclear. In this study, we integrated published RNA-Seq datasets and established a landscape of RNA REs during the development of mouse spermatogenesis. Totally, 7530 editing sites occurred in 2012 genes among all types of male germ cells were found, these sites enrich on some regions of chromosomes, including chromosome 17 and both ends of chromosome Y. We also found about half of the REs in CDSs can cause amino acids changes. Some non-synonymous REs which exist in specific genes may play important roles in spermatogenesis. Finally, we verified a non-synonymous A-to-I RNA editing site in Cog3 and a stoploss editing in Tssk6 during spermatogenesis. In short, we systematically analyzed the dynamic landscape of RNA editing at different stages of spermatogenesis.

Spermiogenesis includes transcriptional silencing, chromatin condensation and extensive morphological changes as spermatids transform into sperm. Chromatin condensation involves histone hyperacetylation, transitory DNA breaks, histone H2AX (also known as H2AFX) phosphorylation at Ser139 (γH2AX), and replacement of histones by protamines. Previously, we have reported that the spermatid protein kinase TSSK6 is essential for fertility in mice, but its specific role in spermiogenesis is unknown. Here, we show that TSSK6 expression is spatiotemporally coincident with γH2AX formation in the nuclei of developing mouse spermatids. RNA-sequencing analysis demonstrates that genetic ablation of Tssk6 does not impact gene expression or silencing in spermatids. However, loss of TSSK6 blocks γH2AX formation, even though the timing and level of the transient DNA breaks is unaltered. Further, Tssk6-knockout sperm contained increased levels of histones H3 and H4, and protamine 2 precursor and intermediate(s) indicative of a defective histone-to-protamine transition. These results demonstrate that TSSK6 is required for γH2AX formation during spermiogenesis, and also link γH2AX to the histone-to-protamine transition and male fertility.