Figure 5.

Seminiferous tubules of SKAP-deficient mice are partially or completely devoid of germ cells due to a high number of tubules devoid of germ cells. (A) Cross-sections of WT and Knstrn^−/− adult testes stained with PAS. Middle and lower panels: higher magnification of individual seminiferous tubules. Roman numbers indicate the developmental stage of each tubule. SO: Sertoli only; *: presence also of germ cells that are not at the expected developmental stage; arrows: Sertoli cell vacuolization (B) Immunofluorescence analysis of cross-sections from Knstrn^+/+ and Knstrn^−/− adult testes. Nuclei were stained with DAPI (blue in the lower panel), germ cells with an anti-TRA98 (green in the lower panel) and Sertoli cells with an anti-SOX9 antibody (red in the lower panel). Scale bar: 10 μm. (C) Histograms represent the percentage of Knstrn^+/− (gray) and Knstrn^−/− (black) seminiferous tubules that contain 0–6 (day 4ppt testes), 0–10 (day 7ppt testes) or 0–21 (day 9ppt testes) germ cells. For statistics, see Table 3.