Harrison S M, Roffler-Tarlov S
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts 02111.
Dev Dyn. 1994 May;200(1):26-38. doi: 10.1002/aja.1002000104.
The autosomal recessive murine mutation weaver (wv) affects postnatal differentiation in at least three neuronal populations in the brain: dopamine-containing neurons in the mid-brain, and granule and Purkinje cells in the cerebellum. Neuronal populations vulnerable to the actions of weaver die in the midst of development. In addition, homozygous weaver males are sterile. We show by a histological analysis of epididymides and testes that the cause of male sterility in weaver is lack of sperm. The epididymides of the adult weaver mice examined were devoid of sperm, and few seminiferous tubules in the adult weaver's testes contained elongated spermatids. Most tubules were marked by moderate to severe degeneration of the seminiferous epithelium. A developmental study showed that the mutant phenotype emerged after the third postnatal week. By postnatal day 28, the development of weaver sperm lagged behind that of the wild-type and some seminiferous tubules contained degenerating germ cells. By postnatal day 35, terminal differentiation of spermatids appeared to be arrested in many tubules and degeneration of the seminiferous epithelium was widespread. The heterozygotes were unaffected at all ages sampled. We conclude that the normal allele at the weaver locus is necessary for spermiogenesis and the maintenance of spermatogenesis.
常染色体隐性小鼠突变“织工”（wv）影响大脑中至少三个神经元群体的出生后分化：中脑中含多巴胺的神经元，以及小脑中的颗粒细胞和浦肯野细胞。易受“织工”作用影响的神经元群体在发育过程中死亡。此外，纯合的“织工”雄性小鼠不育。我们通过对附睾和睾丸的组织学分析表明，“织工”小鼠雄性不育的原因是缺乏精子。所检查的成年“织工”小鼠的附睾中没有精子，成年“织工”小鼠睾丸中的生精小管很少含有伸长的精子细胞。大多数小管的特征是生精上皮有中度至重度退化。一项发育研究表明，突变表型在出生后第三周后出现。到出生后第28天，“织工”精子的发育落后于野生型，一些生精小管含有退化的生殖细胞。到出生后第35天，许多小管中精子细胞的终末分化似乎停滞，生精上皮的退化很普遍。杂合子在所有采样年龄均未受影响。我们得出结论，“织工”基因座的正常等位基因对于精子发生和精子生成的维持是必需的。
