The papers presented in this special August 2011 HOT TOPICS issue on Protamines: Structure and Function review and provide new information and insight into how the protamine proteins evolved and the impact of these changes on chromatin organization, the processing of the protamine P2 precursor and the relationship between incomplete P2 processing and male infertility, the impact of altering the proportion of the two protamines used to package DNA in the sperm cell, the role endocrines play in the histone to protamine transition and chromatin condensation, the forces generated by protamine when it binds to DNA, and the process of protamine removal from DNA when the sperm enters the oocyte.

This new book Sperm Chromatin: Biological and Clinical Applications in Male Infertility and Assisted Reproduction, edited by Armand Zini and Ashok Agarwal and published by Springer in 2011, covers many important aspects of human sperm chromatin structure and function (including the role of protamines), laboratory techniques currently used to evaluate sperm chromatin, what is known about the biological and clinical determinants of sperm chromatin damage, and the relationship between different aspects of sperm chromatin damage and assisted reproductive technology outcomes.