Fig. 3

Deficiency of Qrich2 leads to MMAF in mice. a The schematic illustration of the targeting strategy for generating Qrich2-knockout mice. A frameshift mutation was generated by deleting exon 1 and exon 2 of Qrich2. b Fertility of wild-type (WT), knock out (KO) males and knock out (KO) females. KO male mice and KO female mice were bred with the WT mice and the average litter size was measured. KO males were completely sterile. (Student’s t-test; ^*p < 0.05; NS, not significant; error bars, s.e.m) c The development of sperm flagella in stages IV-VIII of spermatogenesis in mice testes by H&E staining (scale bars, 20 µm). Lack of elongated flagella was observed in the spermatozoa of the KO mice compared with the WT mice. d The dysplasia of the sperm flagella and decreased sperm quantity were observed in the cauda epididymidis of the KO mice (scale bars, 10 µm). e The number of abnormal sperm in WT males and KO males. Almost 100% of sperm in KO males displayed abnormal flagella. (Student’s t-test; ^*p < 0.05; error bars, s.e.m)