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Updated: Aug 10, 2026

Assessing Differences in Sperm Competitive Ability in Drosophila
Published on: August 22, 2013
Chromosomal segregation in spermatozoa of 14 Robertsonian translocation carriers
Gonul Ogur1, Elvire Van Assche, Walter Vegetti
1Center for Medical Genetics, University Hospital, Dutch-Speaking Free University of Brussels, Laarbeeklaan, Belgium.
Abstract:
Male carriers of Robertsonian (Rob) translocations can have fertility problems associated with low sperm counts and abnormal sperm morphology. In this study, spermatozoa from 14 Rob translocation carriers, seven der(13;14), two der(13;15), two der(14;15), two der(14;21) and one der(21;22), were tested by fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH) for the chromosomes involved, to study meiotic segregation behaviour. It was shown that in each type of Rob translocation, meiotic segregation behaviour is similar, comparable and occurs non-randomly. Most of the spermatozoa results from alternate segregation (range: 76-89.47%). There is, however, still much unbalanced spermatozoa resulting from adjacent segregation mode (range: 10.24-23.41%). These data provide useful information for genetic counselling purposes. Moreover, aneuploidy for chromosomes 13,18, 21, X and Y was studied in five patients and suggested an inter-chromosomal effect.
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