Selection for female traits of high fertility affects male reproductive performance and alters the testicular transcriptional profile.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Many genes important for reproductive performance are shared by both sexes. However, fecundity indices are primarily based on female parameters such as litter size. We examined a fertility mouse line (FL2), which has a considerably increased number of offspring and a total litter weight of 180% compared to a randomly bred control line (Ctrl) after more than 170 generations of breeding. In the present study, we investigated whether there might be a parallel evolution in males after more than 40 years of breeding in this outbred mouse model.

Results

Males of the fertility mouse line FL2 showed reduced sperm motility performance in a 5 h thermal stress experiment and reduced birth rate in the outbred mouse line. Transcriptional analysis of the FL2 testis showed the d

SUBMITTER: Michaelis M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5697431 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature