Mutation May Cause Early Loss Of Sperm Supply

The loss of a gene in male mice results in the premature exhaustion of their fertility. Their fundamental new insights into the complex process of sperm generation may have direct applications to a similar loss of fertility in men. What the team discovered is that the loss of the gene that makes the protein TAF4b causes a deficit in the number of progenitor cells at an embryonic stage of a male mouse's reproductive development. Lacking those important precursor cells means that the mice struggle to develop a robust stem cell infrastructure to sustain sperm production for the long term. The affected mice are fertile at first, but quickly deplete the limited sperm supply that they can generate. read more

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