Fig. 1

Cre-recombinase mediated deletion of Pten in SSCs. a PCR analysis of genotype of Pten knockout (KO) mice. Short arrows denote the predicted size of Pten KO and wild-type (WT) alleles, long arrows denote the predicted size of Cre and internal positive control (+/+, wild type; +/−, heterozygote; −/−,homozygote; M, Marker). b Immunostaining of PTEN in cross sections of 7 day-old testis. The cytoplasmic staining was observed in spermatogonial cells from Pten ^+/+ section, whereas it was absent in the Pten ^−/− section (scale bar is 20 µm). c Western blot analysis of PTEN expression in whole testis of 32 day-old Pten ^+/+, Pten ^+/−, and Pten ^−/−mice. PTEN is also expressed in nongerminal cells, so PTEN expression was detected in Pten ^−/− testes, but was significantly lower compared with Pten ^+/+ and Pten ^+/− testes. d Absence of PTEN expression in haploid cells from Pten ^−/− testes. Haploid sperms were isolated from 79 day-old testes of Pten ^+/+ and Pten ^−/− mice separately by sorting using flow cytometer, then were subjected to Western blotting analysis.