Mammalian sperm have a specialized motile flagellum to provide the unidirectional propulsion required to achieve fertilisation of the egg. Defective flagella development and/or function is a significant cause of reduced sperm motility (asthenospermia) and male infertility. Over the past decade, a growing number of distinct proteins with crucial roles in sperm flagella have been identified by genetic loss-of-function approaches in mice, in which the deliberately engineered or spontaneous mutation of individual genes have lead to anomalies in sperm tail assembly, structure and function. In a recent study published in PLoS Genetics, Lo et al. have utilized random mutagenesis induced by the chemical mutagen N-ethyl-nitrosourea to identify a previously uncharacterized protein (RABL2) in murine sperm flagella required for male fertility.

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