Figure 3
Acrosome formation is impaired in AU040320-deficient mice. Adult testis sections from wild-type (wt, left panels) and KO (null, right panels) samples stained with PNA (green) to label developing acrosome and DAPI for cell nuclei (blue) to identify stage-dependent cell types; development stage of shown tubules appears in the main panels and that of analysed spermatids in inset panels (Golgi/Cap/Acrosome phases) is shown on the left. PNA staining in wild-type spermatids in the Golgi phase accumulates homogeneously as a single structure (A), whilst spermatids from AU040320-deficient mice have a diffuse pattern (B). In the cap phase, wild-type spermatids display the characteristic thin layer of acrosomal caps (C) while mutant spermatids have a punctate PNA staining that does not form a single acrosomal vesicle (D). In acrosome phase, PNA-labelled acrosomes elongate along with cell nuclei in wild-type testis samples (E) but this pattern is not observed in mutant samples (F), where PNA staining appears disarranged and absent in many cases. Similar pattern is also observed in maturation phase; asterisks in inset panels A’ and B’ indicate examples of spermatids in maturation phase present in these tubules. For each condition, n = 5. Scale bars: main panels 25 μm, insets 5 μm.
