ESX1 gene as a potential candidate responsible for male infertility in nonobstructive azoospermia

Infertility is a problem that affects around 15% of couples. In 40-50% of these couples male infertility is involved. The cause of male infertility is still poorly diagnosed and treated. One of the entities of male infertility is disturbed spermatogenesis, which can lead to nonobstructive azoospermia (NOA), with no sperm cells in the ejaculate. The whole genome sequencing (WGS) allow us to identify novel rare variants in potentially NOA-associated genes. One of them was ESX1 gene. The aim of the study was to activate the ESX1 gene using CRISPRa technology in testicular seminoma cells - TCam2. In this study we achieved the successful activation of ESX1 gene in genetically modified TCam-2 cells using CRISPRa system, in which the expression level of ESX1 gene was significantly higher compared to WT cells and negative control with non-targeted sgRNA (p<0.01). These results were successfully confirmed at protein level by using Western blotting and immunofluorescence. Using RNA-seq analysis we determined the genes that were potentially regulated by ESX1 gene. Such genes associated with proliferation and apoptosis process: CCND1, KDR, WNT11, LGALS3, LINC00662, PDE1C, RPS6KA5, FGF4, NANOG, L1TD1, which were differently expressed in cells with ESX1 gene activation in comparison to the controls (p<0.05). Overall design: The comparative analysis of gene expression profiles by RNA-Seq between modified TCam-2 cells with activated ESX1 gene using CRISPRa system (n=3) compared to WT cells (n=3) and negative control with non-targeted sgRNA (n=3)