Figure 2.

Dmc1 ^M200V/+ and Dmc1 ^M200V/M200V mice are fertile and show no gross abnormalities. (A) Fertility testing. Mice of each genotype listed were bred to a WT mate starting at 8 weeks of age. Litter sizes are shown. The three genotypes on the left (blue) refer to the father’s genotype and the three genotypes on the right (red) refes to the mother’s genotype. WT males (n = 3) sired an average of 8.3 ± 0.65 (SEM) pups and WT females (n = 3) had average litters of 8.6 ± 1.4. The average litters of Dmc1^M200V/M200V males (n = 3) and females (n = 3) were 8.2 ± 0.67 and 9 ± 1.52, respectively. The average litters of Dmc1^M200V/- males (n = 2) and females (n = 2) mice were 8.8 ± 0.58 and 8.8 ± 0.66, respectively. P-values were from the Student’s t-tests. NS = not significant. (B) The mass of 8-week-old testes were measured and averaged, then the ratio was calculated relative to the respective animal’s body mass. Average values ± SEM were 0.41 ± 0.0097 for WT (n = 6), 0.38 ± 0.036 for Dmc1^M200V/+ (n = 5) and 0.42 ± 0.015 for Dmc1^M200V/M200V (n = 4). (C) Sperm counts from 8-week-old males. Average values ± SEM were 53 150 000 ± 802 808 for WT (n = 6); 49 806 667 ± 3 097 300 for Dmc1^M200V/+ (n = 5) and 50 025 ,000 ± 2 947 987 for Dmc1^M200V/M200V (n = 4). (D) Testicular histology of WT and mutant. H&E stained testis cross-sections were from 8-week-old animals, and imaged at 40x magnification. Size bar, 75 μm. (E) Ovarian histology of WT and mutant. Paraffin-embedded and H&E stained cross-sections were from 3-week-old WT and Dmc1^M200V/M200V ovaries. The left panels were imaged at 10x (size bar, 500 μm). The right panels are higher magnifications from the insets in the left panels (size bar, 50 μm). Black asterisks mark primordial follicles. (F) Quantification of primordial follicles in 3-week-old ovaries. Averages for each ovary are 2516 ± 144 follicles in WT (n = 3; SEM) and 2581 ± 74.2 follicles in Dmc1^M200V/M200V (n = 3) and Dmc1^M200V/M200V (n = 3).