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Mutation in Drosophila concentrative nucleoside transporter 1 alters spermatid maturation and mating behavior
oleh: Houda Ouns Maaroufi, Houda Ouns Maaroufi, Lucie Pauchova, Lucie Pauchova, Yu-Hsien Lin, Yu-Hsien Lin, Bulah Chia-Hsiang Wu, Bulah Chia-Hsiang Wu, Lenka Rouhova, Lenka Rouhova, Lucie Kucerova, Ligia Cota Vieira, Marek Renner, Hana Sehadova, Hana Sehadova, Miluse Hradilova, Michal Zurovec, Michal Zurovec
Format: | Article |
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Diterbitkan: | Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-08-01 |
Deskripsi
Concentrative nucleoside transporters (Cnts) are unidirectional carriers that mediate the energy-costly influx of nucleosides driven by the transmembrane sodium gradient. Cnts are transmembrane proteins that share a common structural organization and are found in all phyla. Although there have been studies on Cnts from a biochemical perspective, no deep research has examined their role at the organismal level. Here, we investigated the role of the Drosophila melanogaster cnt1 gene, which is specifically expressed in the testes. We used the CRISPR/Cas9 system to generate a mutation in the cnt1 gene. The cnt1 mutants exhibited defects in the duration of copulation and spermatid maturation, which significantly impaired male fertility. The most striking effect of the cnt1 mutation in spermatid maturation was an abnormal structure of the sperm tail, in which the formation of major and minor mitochondrial derivatives was disrupted. Our results demonstrate the importance of cnt1 in male fertility and suggest that the observed defects in mating behavior and spermatogenesis are due to alterations in nucleoside transport and associated metabolic pathways.