The sperm cell is the only cell that swims and the speed of the sperm is critical in fertility. Just like how swimmers can wear suits to increase their speed, the male sperm has developed their own way to become specially streamlined. A study by scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) show that there is a protein found in the developing sperm called Brdt that causes re-packaging of sperm DNA by utilizing the proteins called histones.
We know that in our body our DNA is packaged into structures called chromatin. The long DNA strands our wrapped around the proteins, histones, in what is known as the histone complex. It is found that in sperm, this complex is much more compact making the size of the head small for greater streamline effect. The compactness of chromatin is regulated by histones which are marked with different chemical tags. These tags can bind to different proteins that act as a code for structural change. The protein Brdt binds strongly to two tags in the histone complex as opposed to the norm of one tag. Therefore Brdt is able to cause greater compaction by pulling the histone complexes together once the histones have been tagged. Upon examining other proteins that deal with chromatin, this tag-binding process is most likely to be used as well, increasing our understanding of the histone code. Further research in on this in sperm development may show greater understanding of the protein and its role in human infertility.
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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090930132652.htm
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