Publication Date
2021
Journal or Book Title
ELIFE
Abstract
The X-linked gene Rlim plays major roles in female mouse development and reproduction, where it is crucial for the maintenance of imprinted X chromosome inactivation in extraembryonic tissues of embryos. However, while females carrying a systemic Rlim knockout (KO) die around implantation, male Rlim KO mice appear healthy and are fertile. Here, we report an important role for Rlim in testis where it is highly expressed in post-meiotic round spermatids as well as in Sertoli cells. Systemic deletion of the Rlim gene results in lower numbers of mature sperm that contains excess cytoplasm, leading to decreased sperm motility and in vitro fertilization rates. Targeting the conditional Rlim cKO specifically to the spermatogenic cell lineage largely recapitulates this phenotype. These results reveal functions of Rlim in male reproduction specifically in round spermatids during spermiogenesis.
ISSN
2050-084X
ORCID
Gervasi, Maria Gracia/0000-0002-5468-2700; Rinaldi, Vera/0000-0002-0051-1754; Boskovic, Ana/0000-0003-1258-4376
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.63556
Volume
10
License
UMass Amherst Open Access Policy
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Funder
National Institutes of HealthUnited States Department of Health & Human ServicesNational Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA [GM128168, HD080224, HD038082, DP1ES025458]; University of Massachusetts [DK32520]
Recommended Citation
Wang, Feng; Gervasi, Maria Gracia; Bošković, Ana; Sun, Fengyun; Rinaldi, Vera D.; Wallingford, Mary C.; Tourzani, Darya A.; Mager, Jesse; Zhu, Lihua Julie; and Rando, Oliver J., "Deficient Spermiogenesis in Mice Lacking Rlim" (2021). ELIFE. 20.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.63556