The role of Cdyl and CDY in mammalian spermatogenesis

Mouse Cdyl was originally identified based on homology to the human gene CDY (Lahn and Page, 1999), which is found in four copies on the human Y chromosome (Kuroda-Kawaguchi et al., 2001). Because CDY is expressed specifically in the testis (Lahn and Page, 1999) and is found in Y chromosomal regions that are deleted in some infertile men (Kuroda-Kawaguchi et al., 2001), CDY is thought to have an important role in male fertility and spermatogenesis. However, human studies have not yet been able to directly implicate CDY in male infertility. Even though mouse Cdyl is not located on the Y chromosome, it is the closest known mouse homologue of human CDY and is expressed highly in the testes (Lahn and Page, 1999), which suggests that mouse Cdyl provides a suitable model for the study of human CDY function. However, unlike human CDY, mouse Cdyl is expressed in tissues other than the testis (Lahn and Page, 1999). We have generated mice deficient for Cdyl to study its role in spermatogenesis and characterized their phenotype on a pure BALB/c background. Nearly 2/3 of Cdyl knockout mice die shortly after birth, but those that survive to adulthood appear healthy except for spermatogenic defects.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Biology.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Potash, Jesse

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• David C. Page.

• Biology.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34579

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34579