Ready, Set, Sperm

Male infertility contributes to around half of infertility cases. There are many reasons why men can be infertile, including the production of low-quality sperm, low sperm count or low levels of testosterone. Polycomb Repressive Complex 1 (PRC1) is a protein complex known to be involved, as its name suggests, in silencing the production of certain proteins from their gene. However, in a mouse model, PRC1 was found to change once males reached reproductive age and activate certain genes responsible for triggering fertile sperm. The change in PRC1 involved the addition of another protein called Sall4 (pictured in green in a testicular section) to initiate the timely production of fertile sperm. When PRC1 is disrupted in mice, they’re unable to produce healthy sperm nor, therefore, reproduce. This finding will help researchers to dig deeper into genetic factors affecting infertility.

Written by Katie Panteli

Katie Panteli

Writer

Katie, a Warwick Biomed graduate, works for a science-publishing house in London with some of the world's most respected scientific minds. She's most interested in human biology, anything and everything that makes us tick.

• Image from the Namekawa Research Lab, Cincinnati Children's Hospital
• Division of Reproductive Sciences, Perinatal Institute, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA
• Image copyright held by the original authors
• Research published in Genes & Development, September 2017