Further studies of the effect of the T locus in the house mouse on male fertility

Abstract

Since the discovery of the recessive lethal mutation to as reported by Dobrovolskaia-Zawadskaia and Kobozieff ( '32) and Chesley and Dunn ('36) a considerable amount of research has been devoted to the remarkable series of recessive mutant alleles that have since been shown to occur at this locus (T). These t alleles are characterized by the production of taillessness when present in combination with the dominant allele Brachyury (T) which by itself (+/T) causes only a shortening of the tail. Up to date at least 9 different t alleles have been described as occurring in laboratory stocks and a further 16 alleles have been reported in wild populations (Dunn '56). Many, but not all, of these alleles are lethal when present in homozygous condition. Two unusual phenomena connected with the t alleles are (1) the existence of sterility in males carrying certain combinations of alleles, whereas females having similar genotypes are fully fertile (Bryson, '44 ; Dunn and Gluecksohn-Schoenheimer, '43 ; Gluecksohn-Schoenheimer, Segal and Fitch, '50) and (2) the abnormal segregation ratio of + and t, or T and t, in males,

The Passage of Abnormal Spermatozoa Through the Uterotubal Junction of the Mouse

“…This may explain the discrepancy between the results obtained by Braden & Gluecksohn-Waelsch (1958) and those of Olds (1970). In a study of the spermatozoa of sterile males carrying some special combinations of t-alleles, the first authors found only morphologically normal spermatozoa in the oviduct, while Olds reported that both abnormal and normal spermatozoa were present among the few recovered from the oviducts.…”

“…Braden & Gluecksohn-Waelsch (1958) pointed out that the few spermatozoa from sterile t/t males which did reach the oviduct had normal heads, and suggested that spermatozoa with morphologically abnormal heads could not pass through the uterotubal junction. However, Olds (1970), studying the effect of locus on sperm distribution, found no direct relationship between the percentage of abnormal spermatozoa in the uterus and the total number of spermatozoa recovered from the oviducts.…”

Transmission Ratios at the T-Locus in the Mouse: Inter-and Intra-Male Heterogeneity

“…Details of colony management at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, where part of the work was done (results from males A, B, C, D, E, F, and G), have been given elsewhere (Braden 1958;Braden and Gluecksohn-Waelsch 1958). The strain of female employed there was a randomly-bred Swiss albino strain (herein designated SA).…”

Genetic analysis of sperm function in fertilization

“…Very few sperm from t"/ty males ever reach the oviduct [Braden and Gluecksohn-Waelsch, 1958;Bennett and Dunn, 1967;Olds, 19701, despite nearly normal numbers of uterine sperm [Braden and Gluecksohn-Waelsch, 1958;Olds-Clarke, 19861. Although even inert particles can be transported from uterus to oviducts, sperm with progressive motility appear to have an advantage in passing through the uterotubal junction [Gaddum-Rosse, 1981 1.…”