Sex Chromosome Biology Laboratory, The Francis Crick Institute, London, United Kingdom.
Elife. 2021 Oct 4;10:e67345. doi: 10.7554/eLife.67345.
The mammalian Y chromosome is critical for male sex determination and spermatogenesis. However, linking each Y gene to specific aspects of male reproduction has been challenging. As the Y chromosome is notoriously hard to sequence and target, functional studies have mostly relied on transgene-rescue approaches using mouse models with large multi-gene deletions. These experimental limitations have oriented the field toward the search for a minimum set of Y genes necessary for male reproduction. Here, considering Y-chromosome evolutionary history and decades of discoveries, we review the current state of research on its function in spermatogenesis and reassess the view that many Y genes are disposable for male reproduction.
哺乳动物的 Y 染色体对于雄性性别决定和精子发生至关重要。然而，将每个 Y 基因与男性生殖的特定方面联系起来一直具有挑战性。由于 Y 染色体测序和靶向难度大，功能研究主要依赖于使用具有多个基因缺失的大型小鼠模型进行转基因拯救方法。这些实验限制使该领域倾向于寻找一组最小的 Y 基因，这些基因对于雄性生殖是必需的。在这里，我们考虑到 Y 染色体的进化历史和几十年来的发现，回顾了目前关于其在精子发生中的功能的研究现状，并重新评估了许多 Y 基因对于雄性生殖是可有可无的观点。
