Fig. 1: P62 deficiency leads to female infertility.

a Representative breeding study illustration: four young (8 week old) p62^−/− or p62^+/+ female mice were paired with four p62^+/+ adult male mice for 7 days and then returned to their own cages for 3 weeks to allow for the birth of pups, indicating successful pairing. Each row represents one individual female, and each bar represents one of her pairings. Four examples were chosen from each group to illustrate the fertility phenotypes. b Cumulative number of pups per female and c infertility success rate of female mice in each group during the breeding study, n = 4. d–f Estrous cycles, representative images of ovaries with uteri (scale bar, 500 μm), and the relative quantification of ovary weights in each group. g H&E staining of mouse ovaries. CL corpus luteum, LAF large antral follicle, GF growing follicle; scale bar, 20 μm. h The percentage of ovarian growing follicles, large antral follicles, and corpus luteum counts among all the follicles in each group, n = 4–5. i The relative mRNA expression levels of key steroidogenesis signaling pathway proteins in the ovaries of 8-week-old p62^−/− and p62^+/+ female mice, n = 4–6. j, k Serum estradiol (E2) and progestogen (P) levels of the young p62^−/− and p62^+/+ female groups, n = 5–8. The data in i are presented as the mean ± SEM, and the data in the other panels are presented as the mean ± SD. Student’s t-test. *P < 0.05; **P < 0.01.