{"doi":"10.1016/j.ydbio.2025.08.003","title":"The Caenorhabditis elegans spe-21 gene that encodes a palmitoyltransferase is necessary for spermiogenesis","abstract":"In most animals, spermatids that are produced must further differentiate into fertilization-competent spermatozoa after completing meiosis. In Caenorhabditis elegans, this process is known as spermiogenesis or spermatid activation and it results in the transformation of round, non-motile spermatids into amoeboid, motile spermatozoa. Spermatid activation in C. elegans is also associated with the fusion of Golgi-derived vesicles called the membranous organelles (MOs) with the plasma membrane. This fusion process is required for producing a fertilization-competent surface on the sperm by placing MO-carried, resident proteins onto the spermatozoon membrane. We have identified, cloned, and characterized the role of spe-21, also designated as dhhc-5, during both hermaphrodite and male spermatid activation. Putative spe-21 null mutant worms are severely sub-fertile at all studied growth temperatures. spe-21 mutant spermatids fail to activate either in vivo or in vitro after treatment with known chemical activators. We have found that spe-21 is necessary for MO fusion and pseudopod formation in spermatids. The spe-21 gene encodes a predicted four pass transmembrane protein with a conserved Asp-His-His-Cys (DHHC) tetrapeptide zinc finger motif embedded in a cysteine rich region (DHHC-CRD type zinc finger motif). Generally, proteins with DHHC-CRD motifs catalyze the post-translational addition of palmitate to their protein substrates and are called palmitoyltransferases or palmitoylacyltransferases (PATs). We also found that mNeonGreen-tagged SPE-21 localizes to the MOs in spermatids. Together, our findings show that SPE-21 is an MO localized palmitoyltransferase required for proper spermatid activation and creation of fertilization-competent spermatozoa.","journal":"Developmental Biology","year":2025,"id":545933,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9438,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":655705,"name":"Dawn S. Chen","orcid":"0000-0002-0198-2216","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1097947,"name":"Yamei Zuo","orcid":"0000-0002-4201-3577","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":573131,"name":"Elizabeth J. Gleason","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":945588,"name":"Zhaorong Zhu","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":573133,"name":"Steven W. L’Hernault","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":817197,"name":"Amber R. Krauchunas","orcid":"0000-0003-0013-5258","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":817200,"name":"Andrew Singson","orcid":"0000-0002-5091-0892","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1437148,"name":"Saai Suryanarayanan","orcid":"0009-0005-6855-7950","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":90,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:53:27.751050Z","pmid":"40784522","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}