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Updated: Apr 12, 2026

A Seminiferous Tubule Squash Technique for the Cytological Analysis of Spermatogenesis Using the Mouse Model
Published on: February 6, 2018
Functional significance of the sex chromosomes during spermatogenesis
Yueh-Chiang Hu1, Satoshi H Namekawa2
1Division of Developmental BiologyDivision of Reproductive SciencesCincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio 45229, USA yueh-chiang.hu@cchmc.org satoshi.namekawa@cchmc.org.
Abstract:
Mammalian sex chromosomes arose from an ordinary pair of autosomes. Over hundreds of millions of years, they have evolved into highly divergent X and Y chromosomes and have become increasingly specialized for male reproduction. Both sex chromosomes have acquired and amplified testis-specific genes, suggestive of roles in spermatogenesis. To understand how the sex chromosome genes participate in the regulation of spermatogenesis, we review genes, including single-copy, multi-copy, and ampliconic genes, whose spermatogenic functions have been demonstrated in mouse genetic studies. Sex chromosomes are subject to chromosome-wide transcriptional silencing in meiotic and postmeiotic stages of spermatogenesis. We also discuss particular sex-linked genes that escape postmeiotic silencing and their evolutionary implications. The unique gene contents and genomic structures of the sex chromosomes reflect their strategies to express genes at various stages of spermatogenesis and reveal the driving forces that shape their evolution.Free Chinese abstract: A Chinese translation of this abstract is freely available at http://www.reproduction-online.org/content/149/6/R265/suppl/DC1.Free Japanese abstract: A Japanese translation of this abstract is freely available at http://www.reproduction-online.org/content/149/6/R265/suppl/DC2.
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