Mouse models for identifying genes modulating fertility parameters

Fertility can be defined as the natural capability of giving life. It is an important factor both for human medicine, where ~10% of the couples call for the services of assisted reproductive technologies, and for species of economic interest. In particular, in dairy cows, the recent years have seen a kind of competition between milk production and fertility, and genes improving fertility are now considered as parameters to be selected for. The study of fertility pathways is nevertheless made difficult by the strong impact of environmental factors on this parameter, as well as by the number of genes potentially involved (as shown by systematic transcriptome analysis studies in the recent years). One additional level of complexity is given by the fact that factors modulating fertility will probably be sex specific. The usage of mouse models has been one of the solutions exploited for tackling with these difficulties. Here, we review three different approaches using mice for identifying genes modulating fertility in mammals: gene invalidation, positional cloning and in vitro mutagenesis. These three approaches exploit specific characteristics of the mouse, such as the possibility of controlling precisely the environment, an excellent genetic characterization and the existence of genomic and molecular tools equalled only in humans. Many indications suggest that at least some of the results obtained in mice could be easily transposed to the species of interest.