Biallelic mutations in spermatogenesis and centrioie-associated 1 like(SPATC1L)cause acephalic spermatozoa syndrome and male infertility

• 作者: You-Zhu Li Na Li Wen-Sheng Liu Yan-Wei Sha Rong-Feng Wu Ya-Ling Tang Xing-Shen Zhu Xiao-Li Wei Xiao-Ya Zhang Yi-Feng Wang Zhong-Xian Lu Fu-Xing Zhang
• 来源期刊: 亚洲男性学杂志（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2022,（1）
• 所属期刊栏目: ORIGINAL ARTICLE
• 页码范围: 67-72
• 页数: 6页
• 语种: 英文
• DOI: 10.4103/aja.aja_56_21

摘要

Acephalic spermatozoa syndrome is a rare type of teratozoospermia that severely impairs the reproductive ability of male patients,and genetic defects have been recognized as the main cause of acephalic spermatozoa syndrome.Spermatogenesis and centriole-associated 1 like(SPATC1L)is indispensable for maintaining the integrity of sperm head-to-tail connections in mice,but its roles in human sperm and early embryonic development remain largely unknown.Herein,we conducted whole-exome sequencing(WES)of 22 infertile men with acephalic spermatozoa syndrome.An in silico analysis of the candidate variants was conducted,and WES data analysis was performed using another cohort consisting of 34 patients with acephalic spermatozoa syndrome and 25 control subjects with proven fertility.We identified biallelic mutations in SPATC1L(c.910C＞T:p.Arg304Cys and c.994G＞T:p.Glu332X)from a patient whose sperm displayed complete acephalia.Both SPATC1L variants are rare and deleterious.SPATC1L is mainly expressed at the head-tail junction of elongating spermatids.Plasmids containing pathogenic variants decreased the level of SPATC1L in vitro.Moreover,none of the patient's four attempts at intracytoplasmic sperm injection(ICSI)resulted in a transplantable embryo,which suggests that SPATC1L defects might affect early embryonic development.In conclusion,this study provides the first identification of SPATC1L as a novel gene for human acephalic spermatozoa syndrome.Furthermore,WES might be applied for patients with acephalic spermatozoa syndrome who exhibit reiterative ICSI failures.