RESUMO
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the complexity of mRNA in the ejaculated sperm from healthy fertile men.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Semen samples were collected from 10 healthy fathers. The swim-up method was adopted to purify the sperm from possible contamination of somatic cells and the spermatozoal total RNA extracted by Trizol was used for SAGE library analysis.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>A totle of 21 052 SAGE raw tags were sequenced from 877 clones and 2 712 unique tags that occurred at least twice in the library were given further analysis. 19.7% of the unique tags had no match in the existing SAGE map, representing novel genes. Molecular function analysis revealed 67% of unique tags related to protein binding or nucleic acid binding categories, 41% to catalytic activity, 13% to message transducer activity, and 10% to transporter, structural and transcription regulator activity, respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>There exists a complex repertoire of mRNAs in the ejaculated spermatozoa from fertile men.</p>