Analysis Tools
reproductive system
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• female mice exhibit normal fecundity
• male mice display normal testis weights, spermatogenesis, sperm morphology, and sperm counts; although sperm fertilizing ability is impaired, sperm show normal motility and ability to bind the zone pellucida (ZP)
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• testes show normal expression of sperm plasma membrane proteins but reduced abundance of multiple acrosomal membrane proteins involved in fertilization
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• despite successful coituses, males are severely subfertile, as indicated by a drastic reduction in the pregnancy rate, average number of pups per litter, and average number of pups per plug
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• in vitro fertilization analyses revealed that sperm showed significantly reduced ability to fertilize cumulus-intact, cumulus-free, and ZP-free eggs
• sperm fail to fertilize eggs in vivo and accumulate in the perivitelline space, indicating that they undergo the acrosome reaction and penetrate the ZP but fail to fuse with the eggs
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• sperm-egg binding and fusion assays indicate that sperm bind but do not fuse with the oolemma
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• sperm show upregulated chaperones related to ER-associated degradation (ERAD) and elevated protein ubiquitination
• strikingly, SPACA6 (known to play a key role in sperm-egg binding or fusion) is undetectable in spermatozoa
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endocrine/exocrine glands
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• testes show normal expression of sperm plasma membrane proteins but reduced abundance of multiple acrosomal membrane proteins involved in fertilization
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