Epigenetic factors in the regulation of prospermatogonia and spermatogonial stem cells

Abstract

Appropriate regulation of epigenome within cells is crucial for the determination of cell fate and contributes to the lifelong maintenance of tissue homeostasis. Epigenomic re-establishment during embryonic prospermatogonia development and fine-tune of the epigenetic landscape in postnatal spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) are two key processes required for functional male germ cell formation. Repression of re-activated transposons and male germline-specific epigenome establishment occur in prospermatogonia, whereas modulations of the epigenetic landscape is important for SSC self-renewal and differentiation to maintain the stem cell pool and support long-term sperm production. Here, we describe the impact of epigenome-related regulators and small non-coding RNAs as well as the influence of epigenome modifications that result from extrinsic signaling for controlling the decision between self-renewal, differentiation and survival in mouse prospermatogonia and SSCs. This article provides a review of epigenome-related molecules involved in cell fate determination in male germ cells and discusses the intriguing questions that arise from these studies.