Fig. 2: Paternal exposure to ionizing radiation leads to DNA fragmentation, chromosomal rearrangement and aneuploidy in the F₁ generation.

a, Left, male germline DAPI staining. Right, magnified mature sperm. Scale bar, 20 μm. b, Embryonic DAPI staining. Bottom, chromosomal lagging and bridging. Scale bar, 10 μm. c, Intestinal DAPI staining. Bottom, magnified view of two representative cells. Scale bar, 10 μm. d, Telomere fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and DAPI staining in the germline. Bottom, magnified view of fragmented DNA. Right, late diakinesis oocytes. Arrowheads indicate DNA fragmentation. Scale bars, 10 μm. Experiments in a–c were repeated three times with similar observations; experiment in d was repeated two times with similar observations. e, Quantification of DAPI-stained bodies in late diakinesis oocytes. Data are mean ± s.d., n = 25 oocytes. f, Quantification of DNA fragmentation (without telomere FISH signal) per late diakinesis oocyte. n represents the number of oocytes. g, Representative circos plots showing chromosomal translocations (inter- or intra-chromosomal fusions) in ∆mf and ∆mm. All translocations are listed in Supplementary Table 3. h, RNAPll p-Ser2, HIM-8 and DAPI staining in dissected germline. Right, three representative nuclei. Scale bar, 20 μm. This experiment was repeated three times with similar observations. IR indicates exposure to ionizing radiation. Drawings illustrate the (a) sperm, (b) F₁ embryos, (c) F₁ somatic tissues and (d, h) F₁ germlines of irradiated males that are investigated in the respective panels.