Overview
- An international RIKEN-led team tailored ultrastructure expansion microscopy for fragile male germ cells to track proximal and distal centrioles during sperm development.
- Fluorescent labeling revealed increasing centrin-POC5 complexes that strengthen the distal centriole’s inner scaffold after meiosis.
- CRISPR knockout of POC5 yielded males with no viable sperm as malformed flagella disintegrated, while centriole functions in other cell types appeared unaffected.
- The peer-reviewed results were published December 3 in Science Advances, and the authors say the protocol could be applied to human sperm pending further validation.
- The team is attempting replication in several nonhuman species, and experts underscore that male factors contribute to about half of global infertility cases.