title: Meiotic failure in male mice lacking an X-linked factor.
abstract: Meiotic silencing of sex chromosomes may cause their depletion of meiosis-specific genes during evolution. Here, we challenge this hypothesis by reporting the identification of TEX11 as the first X-encoded meiosis-specific factor in mice. TEX11 forms discrete foci on synapsed regions of meiotic chromosomes and appears to be a novel constituent of meiotic nodules involved in recombination. Loss of TEX11 function causes chromosomal asynapsis and reduced crossover formation, leading to elimination of spermatocytes, respectively, at the pachytene and anaphase I stages. Specifically, TEX11-deficient spermatocytes with asynapsed autosomes undergo apoptosis at the pachytene stage, while those with only asynapsed sex chromosomes progress. However, cells that survive the pachytene stage display chromosome nondisjunction at the first meiotic division, resulting in cell death and male infertility. TEX11 interacts with SYCP2, which is an integral component of the synaptonemal complex lateral elements. Thus, TEX11 promotes initiation and/or maintenance of synapsis and formation of crossovers, and may provide a physical link between these two meiotic processes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Biology, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Katarina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gell
authors.forename: Godfried W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: van der Heijden
authors.forename: Sigrid
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Eckardt
authors.forename: N Adrian
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Leu
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Page
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Benavente
authors.forename: Chengtao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Her
authors.forename: Christer
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Höög
authors.forename: K John
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: McLaughlin
authors.forename: Peijing Jeremy
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone / Q000378:metabolism; D023902:Chromosome Pairing / Q000235:genetics*; D003434:Crossing Over, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D005260:Female; D050172:Genes, X-Linked / Q000502:physiology*; D007248:Infertility, Male / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008817:Mice, Mutant Strains; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D013090:Spermatocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D014960:X Chromosome / Q000235:genetics; D014998:Y Chromosome / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D002868:Chromosomal Proteins, Non-Histone; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D011506:Proteins; C498354:Sycp2 protein, mouse; C528721:Tex11 protein, mouse