Reproductive genetics: New gene for male infertility discovered

Histology: cross-section of the testicle of a man with normal sperm formation (A) and of a man with M1AP mutation (B). The arrows indicate sperm (white) and the cells from which sperm normally proceeds (yellow/black). Nadja Rotte Impairment of sperm formation: male infertility is not only a concern for those affected but is also something which the working group led by Prof. Frank Tüttelmann is researching into. The Reproductive Genetics team at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Münster is running a multitude of projects as it attempts to get to the bottom of further causes of male infertility. Their latest finding is the identification of a new gene called M1AP, which is seen as a relevant cause of male infertility. The results of this wide-ranging research, which were arrived at under the leadership of Frank Tüttelmann, Corinna Friedrich and Margot Wyrwoll, were published recently in the American Journal of Human Genetics and represent significant progress in understanding male infertility. In the course of their two years of research, one of the things the Reproductive Genetics team succeeded in doing was to demonstrate the existence of a specific mutation in M1AP which, it is assumed, can be traced back to a common ancestor in the European population.