A Drosophila toolkit for defining gene function in spermatogenesis

Abstract

Expression profiling and genomic sequencing methods enable the accumulation of vast quantities of data that relate to the expression of genes during the maturation of male germ cells from primordial germ cells to spermatozoa and potential mutations that underlie male infertility. However, the determination of gene function in specific aspects of spermatogenesis or linking abnormal gene function with infertility remain rate limiting, as even in an era of CRISPR analysis of gene function in mammalian models, this still requires considerable resources and time. Comparative developmental biology studies have shown the remarkable conservation of spermatogenic developmental processes from insects ..