Fol. Biol. 2003, 49, 129-141
Selected Genetic Aspects of Male Infertility - What Animal Models Tell Us
Many advances have been recently made in understanding the genetic control of fertility in model systems. This review concentrates on genetic causes of male factor infertility in mammalian models. More than 150 genes proved to be important for the male fertility in mammals and the list is continuously growing. Most of those genes were discovered using gene targeting in the mouse. Here, several interesting male infertility mutations are described with regard to the pathogenesis of reproduction failure. A detailed table comprising most of the genes causing male infertility is presented as supplementary Table 1, at http://www.img.cas.cz/fb/v49no4_table1.html, including the corresponding references.
Keywords
male infertility, spermatogenesis, animal models, genetic control of male fertility, pathogenesis of male infertility, mutations causing male infertility.
Funding
This work was supported by grant No. 301/02/0464 from the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic and by grant No. 36/2001/C from the Grant Agency of Charles University.
References
Copyright
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.