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1 September 2004 Selective Passage Through the Uterotubal Junction of Sperm from a Mixed Population Produced by Chimeras of Calmegin-Knockout and Wild-Type Male Mice
Tomoko Nakanishi, Ayako Isotani, Ryo Yamaguchi, Masahito Ikawa, Tadashi Baba, Susan S. Suarez, Masaru Okabe
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

Loss of calmegin, a testis-specific putative chaperone protein of the endoplasmic reticulum, leads to male sterility because the sperm show defects in migration into the oviduct and do not bind to the zona pellucida. To clarify the mechanism of defective migration, XY ⟷ XY chimeras were produced by aggregating wild-type embryos with embryos of transgenic mice lacking functional calmegin genes and expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) in their acrosomes. Chimeric ejaculates contained wild-type, nonfluorescent sperm as well as sperm with EGFP-tagged acrosomes and the defective calmegin gene. Transgenic, wild-type, and chimeric males were mated to wild-type females; however, only wild-type sperm were ever found within the oviducts. Calmegin-knockout sperm, even when they were combined in chimeric ejaculates with wild-type sperm, remained outside of the uterotubal junction. These findings indicate that the presence of wild-type sperm cannot compensate for the inability of calmegin-knockout sperm to enter the oviduct and that successful ascent into the oviduct depends on the capabilities of individual sperm.

Tomoko Nakanishi, Ayako Isotani, Ryo Yamaguchi, Masahito Ikawa, Tadashi Baba, Susan S. Suarez, and Masaru Okabe "Selective Passage Through the Uterotubal Junction of Sperm from a Mixed Population Produced by Chimeras of Calmegin-Knockout and Wild-Type Male Mice," Biology of Reproduction 71(3), 959-965, (1 September 2004). https://doi.org/10.1095/biolreprod.104.028647
Received: 19 February 2004; Accepted: 1 May 2004; Published: 1 September 2004
KEYWORDS
fallopian tubes
oviduct
sperm
sperm motility and transport
spermatogenesis
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