Fig. 1.

Cfap70-KO male mice were infertile with the OAT phenotype. (a) Schematic illustration of the targeting strategy for generating Cfap70-KO mice. Immunoblotting of CFAP70 was performed in testis protein lysates of adult wild-type (WT) and Cfap70-KO mice and their littermate wild-type (WT) mice (n = 3 each group). β-actin served as a loading control. Representative images were shown. (b) Pregnancy rate of Cfap70-KO male mice and their littermate WT male mice. No females mated with Cfap70-KO male mice were pregnant. Data were presented as the mean ± SD (n = 3 each group). (c) Representative morphology of the male reproductive system from Cfap70-KO mice and their littermate WT mice. t, testis; epi, epididymis; vd, vas deferens; sv, seminal vesicle. (d) Representative histological morphology of the cauda epididymis from Cfap70-KO mice and their littermate WT mice by H&E staining. Scale bars, 50 μm. (e) Sperm count ( × 10⁷/mL) and total sperm motility (%) in Cfap70-KO mice and their littermate WT mice. Data were presented as the mean ± SD (n = 3 each group). Statistical significance was determined by two-tailed, unpaired Student's t test; for sperm count, p < 0.0001; for total sperm motility, p < 0.0001. (f) Representative sperm morphology of Cfap70-KO mice and their littermate WT mice as revealed by Papanicolaou staining. Scale bars, 10 μm. (g) Representative SEM images of spermatozoa from Cfap70-KO mice and their littermate WT mice. Scale bar, 5 or 10 μm. (h) Representative TEM images of spermatozoa from Cfap70-KO mice and their littermate WT mice. CP, central pair; DMTs, peripheral doublet microtubules; ODFs, outer dense fibres; MS, mitochondrial sheath. Scale bars, 100 nm.