Adenylate kinase 9 is essential for sperm function and male fertility in mammals.

ABSTRACT: Despite passing routine laboratory tests for semen quality, bulls used in artificial insemination exhibit significant variation in fertility. Routine analysis of fertility data identified a dairy bull with extreme subfertility (10% pregnancy rate). To characterize the subfertility phenotype, a range of in vitro, in vivo, and molecular assays were carried out. Sperm from the subfertile bull exhibited reduced motility and severely reduced caffeine-induced hyperactivation compared to controls. Ability to penetrate the zona pellucida, cleavage rate, cleavage kinetics, and blastocyst yield after IVF or AI were significantly lower than in control bulls. Whole-genome sequencing from semen and RNA sequencing of testis tissue revealed a critical mutation in adenylate kinase 9 (AK9) that impa

SUBMITTER: O'Callaghan E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10589668 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature