Prohibitin (PHB) interacts with AKT in mitochondria to coordinately modulate sperm motility.

Prohibitin (PHB) interacts with AKT in mitochondria to coordinately modulate sperm motility. Asian J Androl. 2020 Aug 25;: Authors: Li XH, Chai RR, Chen GW, Zhang LF, Tan-Tai WJ, Shi HJ, Martin-DeLeon PA, Wai-Sum O, Chen H Abstract Prohibitin (PHB), an evolutionarily conserved mitochondrial inner membrane protein, is highly expressed in cells that require strong mitochondrial function. Recently, we demonstrated that the deletion of Phb in spermatocytes results in impaired mitochondrial function. In addition, PHB expression in the mitochondrial sheath of human sperm has a significantly negative correlation with mitochondrial reactive oxygen species levels, but a positive one with mitochondrial membrane potential and sperm motility. These results suggest that mitochondrial PHB expression plays a role in sperm motility. However, the mechanism of PHB-mediated regulation of sperm motility remains unknown. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that PHB interacts with protein kinase B (AKT) and exists in a complex with phospho-PHB (pT258) and phospho-AKT in the mitochondrial sheath of murine sperm, as determined using colocalization and coimmunoprecipitation assays. After blocking AKT activity using wortmannin (a phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase [PI3K] inhibitor), murine sperm have significantly ( P < 0.05) decreased levels of phospho-PHB (pT258) and the total and progressive motility. Furthermore, significantly ( P < 0.05) lower level...
Source: Asian Journal of Andrology - Category: Urology & Nephrology Authors: Tags: Asian J Androl Source Type: research