2. Academic Validation
  3. Homozygous mutations in C14orf39/SIX6OS1 cause non-obstructive azoospermia and premature ovarian insufficiency in humans

Homozygous mutations in C14orf39/SIX6OS1 cause non-obstructive azoospermia and premature ovarian insufficiency in humans

  • Am J Hum Genet. 2021 Feb 4;108(2):324-336. doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.01.010.
Suixing Fan 1,  Yuying Jiao 1,  Ranjha Khan 1,  Xiaohua Jiang 1,  Abdul Rafay Javed 1,  Asim Ali 1,  Huan Zhang 1,  Jianteng Zhou 1,  Muhammad Naeem 2,  Ghulam Murtaza 1,  Yang Li 1,  Gang Yang 1,  Qumar Zaman 1,  Muhammad Zubair 1,  Haiyang Guan 1,  Xingxia Zhang 1,  Hui Ma 1,  Hanwei Jiang 1,  Haider Ali 1,  Sobia Dil 1,  Wasim Shah 1,  Niaz Ahmad 3,  Yuanwei Zhang 4,  Qinghua Shi 5
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Division of Reproduction and Genetics, First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, the CAS Key Laboratory of Innate Immunity and Chronic Disease, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Collaborative Innovation Center of Genetics and Development, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China.
  • 2 Medical Genetics Research Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan.
  • 3 Shahbaz Sharif District Hospital, Multan 60800, Pakistan.
  • 4 Division of Reproduction and Genetics, First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, the CAS Key Laboratory of Innate Immunity and Chronic Disease, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Collaborative Innovation Center of Genetics and Development, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China. Electronic address: zyuanwei@ustc.edu.cn.
  • 5 Division of Reproduction and Genetics, First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, the CAS Key Laboratory of Innate Immunity and Chronic Disease, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Collaborative Innovation Center of Genetics and Development, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China. Electronic address: qshi@ustc.edu.cn.
PMID: 33508233 DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.01.010
Abstract

Human infertility is a multifactorial disease that affects 8%-12% of reproductive-aged couples worldwide. However, the genetic causes of human infertility are still poorly understood. Synaptonemal complex (SC) is a conserved tripartite structure that holds homologous chromosomes together and plays an indispensable role in the meiotic progression. Here, we identified three homozygous mutations in the SC coding gene C14orf39/SIX6OS1 in infertile individuals from different ethnic populations by whole-exome Sequencing (WES). These mutations include a frameshift mutation (c.204_205del [p.His68Glnfs∗2]) from a consanguineous Pakistani family with two males suffering from non-obstructive azoospermia (NOA) and one female diagnosed with premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) as well as a nonsense mutation (c.958G>T [p.Glu320∗]) and a splicing mutation (c.1180-3C>G) in two unrelated Chinese men (individual P3907 and individual P6032, respectively) with meiotic arrest. Mutations in C14orf39 resulted in truncated proteins that retained SYCE1 binding but exhibited impaired polycomplex formation between C14ORF39 and SYCE1. Further cytological analyses of meiosis in germ cells revealed that the affected familial males with the C14orf39 frameshift mutation displayed complete asynapsis between homologous chromosomes, while the affected Chinese men carrying the nonsense or splicing mutation showed incomplete synapsis. The phenotypes of NOA and POI in affected individuals were well recapitulated by Six6os1 mutant mice carrying an analogous mutation. Collectively, our findings in humans and mice highlight the conserved role of C14ORF39/SIX6OS1 in SC assembly and indicate that the homozygous mutations in C14orf39/SIX6OS1 described here are responsible for infertility of these affected individuals, thus expanding our understanding of the genetic basis of human infertility.

Keywords

C14orf39/SIX6OS1; chromosome synapsis; mutations; non-obstructive azoospermia; premature ovarian insufficiency; synaptonemal complex.

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