Fig. 3: Spermiogenesis defects in Styxl1-/- mice.
From: STYXL1 regulates CCT complex assembly and flagellar tubulin folding in sperm formation
A Different stages of seminiferous tubules in PAS-stained Styxl1+/+ and Styxl1-/- testes. The red arrow indicates abnormal nuclei of elongating spermatids. Asterisk indicates defects of sperm tails. L, leptotene; Z, zygotene; P, pachytene; D, diplotene; RS, round spermatid; ES, elongated spermatid. Scale bar: 25μm. B Enlarged pictures of different steps of Styxl1+/+ and Styxl1-/- elongated spermatids pointed by arrows in (A) were presented. Schematic diagrams were denoted at bottom. C Ultrastructural analysis of Styxl1+/+ and Styxl1-/- spermatids by transmission electron microscopy. The yellow arrows indicate abnormal constrictions at perinuclear rings. The blue arrows indicate asymmetric and abnormally elongated manchette microtubules. The malformed nuclei (blue asterisk) and acrosomes (yellow asterisk) were also indicated. Ac, acrosome; Pr, perinuclear ring; N, nucleus; Mt, manchette. Scale bar: 1μm. D Immunofluorescence of AC-TUBULIN (red) in stage VII-VIII Styxl1+/+ and Styxl1-/- seminiferous tubules. Nuclei were stained with DAPI (blue). Scale bar: 20μm. E Different developmental steps of spermatids isolated from Styxl1+/+ and Styxl1-/- testes were stained using AC-TUBULIN (yellow), PNA (red) and DAPI (blue). Arrow indicated abnormally coiled flagella. Scale bar: 10μm. F Immunofluorescence analysis of Styxl1+/+ and Styxl1-/- sperm stained by AC-TUBULIN (red) and DAPI (blue). Scale bar: 5μm. G TEM analysis showing the cross-section of midpiece, principal piece and end piece of sperm flagella. Red arrows indicated missing central microtubules. Scale bar: 100 nm. M, mitochondrial sheath; MT, microtubules; ODF, outer dense fibers; CP, central microtubules; FS: fibrous sheath. n = 3 biologically independent samples were included in each group (A, C, G).
