Paternal folate deficiency reveals meiosis as a metabolic sensing window in the male germline

Folate-dependent one-carbon metabolism supplies methyl donors required for chromatin modification, yet how metabolic conditions shape epigenome establishment in the male germline remains poorly understood. Here, using a folate-deficient mouse model, we identify meiotic prophase I as a metabolically sensitive window in the male germline. By integrating in vivo germline analysis with bulk and single-cell transcriptomic and epigenomic profiling, we show that folate deficiency disturbs transcriptional programs in pachytene spermatocytes and preferentially perturbs CpG island (CGI)-associated promoters, which are characterized by bivalent H3K4me3 and H3K27me3 during meiosis. Consistent with this selective vulnerability, active chromatin marks, including H3K4me3 and H3K27ac, are markedly reduced at CGI-associated promoters under folate-deficient conditions. Notably, loci that later exhibit altered H3K4me3 enrichment in mature sperm show earlier chromatin perturbations during meiosis, suggesting that these sperm epigenomic alterations may originate during meiotic development. Together, these findings establish a mechanistic link between paternal folate deficiency and dynamic epigenomic remodeling of CGI-associated chromatin in the male germline.