Fig. 3: Spermatogenesis defects in Mre11-deficient mice.

a Bouin’s fixed testis and epididymis sections stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E). Sg: spermatogonia, Sc: spermatocyte, rSt: round spermatid, eSt: elongated spermatid. b Ratios of testis weight (mg per pair) to body weight (g). Each point represents one animal; error bars indicate mean ± SD. The results of Student’s t tests (two-sided) are shown; ns, not significant (P > 0.05). c Sperm counts (mean ± SD; P value from Student’s t test (two-sided)). d Representative spreads of wild-type or Mre11-cKO spermatocytes showing normal SYCP3 staining at the indicated stages or abnormal (“Zygonema-like”) cells with thickened and/or tangled axes. e Representative RPA2 staining on spermatocyte chromosome spreads. Examples are shown of Mre11-cKO cells with either low or high RPA2 focus counts. f Spermatocyte stages based on SYCP3 staining (L: leptonema, Z: zygonema, Z-like: zygonema-like, P: pachynema, D: diplonema). Error bars indicate mean ± SD from three mice of each genotype. g RPA2 focus numbers. The horizontal lines represent medians for the indicated number of cells counted from 2 mice of each genotype. The stage of each cell was determined from the SYCP3 signal. The results of two-tailed Mann-Whitney U tests are shown. Source data are provided as a Source data file.