title: Spermatogenic defects in F2 mice between normal mouse strains C3H and C57BL/6 without mutation.
abstract: Genetic disorders are usually considered to be caused by harmful gene mutations, as well as by chromosomal aberrations, including small insertions, duplications and/or deletions. However, as infertile individuals often arise among the offspring of crosses between two fertile mouse strains, we postulate that a certain combination of 'normal' genes with neither gene mutations nor chromosomal aberrations can cause such serious phenotypic alterations as reproductive dysfunction. In this study, we show evidence that a combination of multiple normal genes from two different normal mouse strains manifests a wide range of male reproductive dysfunctions, from benign changes to complete infertility. These abnormal phenotypes are thought to have occurred by epistatic interactions of alleles.
authors.affiliation: Agrogenomics Research Center, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Tsukuba. gotoh@affrc.go.jp
authors.forename: Hideo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gotoh
authors.forename: Hiroaki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Aoyama
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D020412:Multifactorial Inheritance / Q000235:genetics; D009154:Mutation; D010641:Phenotype; D013077:Sperm Head / Q000473:pathology; D013091:Spermatogenesis / Q000235:genetics*; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000473:pathology; D013737:Testis / Q000473:pathology