High impact information on Spag16

• Our findings reveal an essential role for Pf20 in mouse spermatogenesis, sustaining postmeiotic germ cell viability [1].
• We disrupted the Pf20 gene domains that encode the C-terminal WD repeats in embryonic stem cells [1].
• Highly chimeric mice carrying the mutant Pf20 allele had impaired spermatogenesis with a significant loss of germ cells at the round spermatid stage, in association with disorganization of sperm axoneme structure [1].
• Immunocytochemistry localized Pf20 to the tails of permeabilized sperm; electron microscope immunocytochemistry showed that Pf20 was located in the axoneme central apparatus [2].
• An antibody generated against an N-terminal sequence of mouse Pf20 recognized a 71-kDa protein in sperm and testis extracts [2].

Biological context of Spag16

• The different patterns of expression of the two PF20 proteins suggest the possibility that the Pf20 gene has multiple functions during spermatogenesis [1].
• The murine Pf20 gene was mapped to chromosome 1, syntenic with the location of the human gene on chromosome 2 [2].
• The sperm defect is consistent with the motility phenotype of the Pf20 mutants of Chlamydomonas, but morphologically different in that the mutant algal axoneme lacks the central apparatus [3].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of Spag16

• Yeast two-hybrid assays demonstrated interaction of the Pf20 WD repeats with Spag6 [2].

References