Gene for Male Fertility Found in Mice

Researchers have discovered that a gene belonging to a family of genes implicated in heart disease is essential for male fertility in mice but has no impact on female fertility. Their findings were published in the May 23, 2003, issue of Science.

The discovery was made while the researchers were investigating the role of the Fkbp6 gene in heart disease. When they eliminated the gene in genetically engineered mice, the oocytes in female mice appeared normal but all the sperm cells in the males had died, resulting in complete infertility. A study of the cells and tissue of the male mice revealed that the mice lacked spermatids, the male germ cells that develop into spermatozoa, an elemental part of semen. The deletion of the Fkbp6 gene was isolated as the cause.

"This gene, Fkbp6, is a member of a family of genes that have been implicated in immunosuppression and heart disease,” said senior author Dr. Josef Penninger, professor of medical biophysics and immunology at the University of Toronto (Canada). "We originally thought Fkbp6 was important for heart function but the only place we could find it was in sperm and oocytes.” Dr. Penninger added that it would be interesting to test whether mutations in the gene also account for human infertility.




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