title: Germ cell-specific Atg7 knockout results in primary ovarian insufficiency in female mice.
abstract: Primary ovarian insufficiency (POI) is a common cause of infertility in around 1-2% of women aged <40 years. However, the mechanisms that cause POI are still poorly understood. Here we showed that germ cell-specific knockout of an essential autophagy induction gene Atg7 led to subfertility in female mice. The subfertility of Atg7 deletion females was caused by severe ovarian follicle loss, which is very similar to human POI patients. Further investigation revealed that germ cell-specific Atg7 knockout resulted in germ cell over-loss at the neonatal transition period. In addition, our in vitro studies also demonstrated that autophagy could protect oocytes from over-loss by apoptosis in neonatal ovaries under the starvation condition. Taken together, our results uncover a new role for autophagy in the regulation of ovarian primordial follicle reservation and hint that autophagy-related genes might be potential pathogenic genes to POI of women.
authors.affiliation: 1] State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China [2] University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: Z-H
authors.initials: ZH
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: 1] State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China [2] University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: H-Y
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: G-K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: W-X
authors.initials: WX
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: M-N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: 1] State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China [2] University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: H-N
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: 1] State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China [2] University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: Y-L
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Shang
authors.affiliation: 1] State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China [2] University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: 1] State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China [2] University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: Z-L
authors.initials: ZL
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: Q-Y
authors.initials: QY
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, PR China.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D017209:Apoptosis; D001343:Autophagy; D000071193:Autophagy-Related Protein 7; D002452:Cell Count; D005260:Female; D005333:Fetus / Q000473:pathology; D017353:Gene Deletion; D006801:Humans; D007247:Infertility, Female / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins / Q000172:deficiency* / Q000378:metabolism; D009865:Oocytes / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D009928:Organ Specificity; D006080:Ovarian Follicle / Q000196:embryology / Q000473:pathology; D010063:Ovum / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D016649:Primary Ovarian Insufficiency / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: C502661:Atg7 protein, mouse; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins; D000071193:Autophagy-Related Protein 7