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CatSper in Male Infertility

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Pathologies of Calcium Channels

Abstract

In 2001, two groups independently reported different components of a novel Ca2+ channel named CatSper, which is expressed only in the testis and localized in the sperm flagellum. Now, we know that CatSper is a sperm-specific Ca2+ channel composed of four distinct pore-forming subunits accompanied with, at least, three auxiliary subunits. Although there is no heterologous expression system to study this CatSper channel, the elimination of any single subunit ever tried in transgenic mice results in male infertility, which indicates that each individual subunit is essential for the correct channel assembly. Whole-cell patch clamp recordings directly taken from spermatozoa revealed that CatSper is a moderately voltage-dependent Ca2+ channel and is activated by intracellular alkalinization and several extracellular ligands, i.e., progesterone and prostaglandin E in human spermatozoa. The spermatozoa of CatSper null mice exhibit a defect in hyperactivated flagellar motility, a vigorous flagellar movement required for fertilization under physiological conditions. In agreement with this, there are some families suffering from male infertility correlated with mutations in CatSper-related genes.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Yuriy Kirichok for his explanation of the shift of voltage dependence of CatSper in divalent cation-free medium. We appreciate the help of Guadalupe Itzel Galán Enríquez for providing us animal illustrations in Fig. 34.2. We also thank Robyn Duckworth and Dr. Alberto Darszon for critical reading of our manuscript. This work is supported by grant of CONACyT (CB2012-177138) and PAPIIT (IN203513).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Genética del Desarrollo y Fisiología Molecular, Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Avenida Universidad #2001, Colonia Chamilpa, 62210, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México

    Takuya Nishigaki, Ana Laura González‐Cota & Gerardo José Orta Salazar

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  1. Takuya Nishigaki
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  2. Ana Laura González‐Cota
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  3. Gerardo José Orta Salazar
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Correspondence to Takuya Nishigaki .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada

    Norbert Weiss

  2. Department of Neurophysiology and Pharmacology, Medical University Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Alexandra Koschak

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Nishigaki, T., González‐Cota, A.L., Orta Salazar, G.J. (2014). CatSper in Male Infertility. In: Weiss, N., Koschak, A. (eds) Pathologies of Calcium Channels. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40282-1_34

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