Developmental study of the different effects on the hybrid sterility of Kit(W) and Kit(W-v) alleles paired with Kit(S) from Mus spretus

摘要

The combination of the Kit(W) or Kit(W-n) mutant alleles and Kits from Mus spretus results in male hybrid sterility with small testes. In the present study, reproduction of the combination between Kit(W-v) and Kit(s) alleles was examined. The Kit(W-v)/Kit(s) male was fertile and the histologic structure was normal; the seminiferous tubules showed all of the normal stages of spermatogenesis. The postnatal development of the testis at 8, 12, 16 and 20 days was also studied in the fertile +(Kit)/+(Kit) and Kit(W-v)/Kit(s) males and the sterile Kit(W)/Kit(s). The results showed that at 8 days there was no noticeable difference among the three genotype combinations, while from 12 to 20 days spermatogenesis in the Kit(w)/Kit(s) male nearly stopped before the meiosis stage. The expression of Kit receptor protein from the Kit(s) allele in the sterile testis of the Kit(w)/Kit(s) male was confirmed using western blot analysis. The Kit ligand derived from M. spretus showed two amino acid changes in the extracellular domain compared with that from C57BL and it appears that the ligand-receptor interaction between C57BL and SPR may influence the male hybrid sterility of Kit(w)/Kit(s).