Fig. 1

SCO seminiferous tubules observed in the testis of mutant mice. A Representative images of whole-mount IFS with TRA98 (red) on seminiferous tubules of WT, Pramex1 sKO, Pramel1 sKO, and Pramex1/Pramel1 dKO mice at P3 and P7. TRA98 was used to label germ cells. The SCO regions lack germ cells and are represented by seminiferous tubules without any TRA98 + cells. White dashed line: SCO regions. Nuclei counterstained with DAPI (blue). Bar = 100 µm. B Percentage of SCO segments (%) based on the whole-mount IFS and IFS from P3-35. Significance was assessed among the four groups (WT, Pramex1 sKO, Pramel1 sKO, and Pramex1/Pramel1 dKO mice) for each time point (P3, P7, P21 and P35). Data were expressed as mean ± SEM. Values that do not share a common superscript (a–c) were different significantly (P < 0.05). C Representative images of IFS with SOX9 (red) counterstained with DAPI (blue) on testis cross-sections of the WT, sKO and dKO (at P21, P28 and P35) mice. SOX9 was a Sertoli cell specific-marker. Dense Sertoli cells were observed along the basement membrane of the SCO tubules where no germ cells were identified (outlined with a white dotted line). The selected regions from the P28 dKO image are enlarged in D. D Enlarged images from the P28 dKO section in C. Testis cross-sections from P28 dKO were stained with germ cell-specific markers TRA98 and DDX4, as well as spermatocyte and spermatid-specific marker MSY2. No signal was detected in SCO tubules, whereas strong signals were observed for either TRA98 and DDX4 (green in the left image) or TRA98, DDX4, and MSY2 markers (yellow in the right image) in normal tubules adjacent to SCO tubules. Bar = 100 µm