Omics has been a hot topic in the 21st century; Genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, proteomics, lipidomics, etc. Nevertheless, omics hasn’t been without its challenges in terms of technical developments. For many scientists, the amount of data generated from most omics studies has been overwhelming. It has become indispensable in biology to have bioinformatic skills, which adds …
Sex chromosomes are important for the development of sperm and egg cells in mammals. In mice, reproductive cells start off as the same type of cell and then develop differently depending on the biological niche they are in. In the case of males (XY), primordial germ cells (PGCs) develop into sperm and in females (XX), …
Kodai Hirano, Yuta Nonami, Yoshiaki Nakamura, Toshiyuki Sato, Takuya Sato, Keiichiro Ishiguro, Takehiko Ogawa, *Shosei Yoshida Background Spermatogenesis in mammals is a temperature-sensitive developmental process that occurs at a few degrees below the core body temperature of 38 °C. Elevated testis temperatures disrupt spermatogenesis at various phases, leading to male infertility. Artificial cryptorchidism, which involves surgically …
Get to know our first invited speaker to the upcoming 15th NYRA Meeting in Caux (June 17th-18th) through this ‘tête-à-tête’. Dr Stukenborg obtained his PhD at the Centre of Reproductive Medicine and Andrology (CeRA) in Münster, Germany, after which he joined the Karolinska Institutet for as a post-doctoral researcher. Currently Dr Stukenborg is a senior …
During the differentiation phase at the spermiogenesis (the last phase of the spermatogenesis), haploid round spermatids undergo an extreme morphological remodelling of nuclear and cytoplasmic structures. Nonetheless, while testicular sperm are morphologically specialized cells, they are not functional and lack both the ability to swim and fertilize. Hence, sperm maturation in the epididymis is therefore …
Human semen quality is remarkably poor, with a reduced efficiency of spermatogenesis. Studies revealed that latter complex process has undergone rapid evolutionary changes. Male infertility is increasing which leads to a concomitant higher demand of assisted reproductive technologies. As other primates have not experienced the same decreasing fertility, a multicenter study sought to uncover the …
The 12th European Congress of Andrology took place from October 19th to October 21st in Barcelona, Spain, and once again NYRA hosted a session with talks from selected younger researchers. Under the expert moderation of Alberto and Daniel from the NYRA board, Yoni Baert (Belgium) introduced us to testicular organoids and their potential in i.e., …
Gamete fusion is the union of two haploid cells (sperm and egg) resulting in fertilisation and embryo development. In mice, this fundamental process is depended on the presence of the egg receptor on the sperm membrane (IZUMO1) and the sperm receptor on the egg membrane (JUNO). While the relevance of this sperm-egg receptors interaction is …
The 14th international NYRA meeting took place from September 20th to September 21st, 2022, in Norwich, United Kingdom. 31 participants from UK, Croatia, Spain, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, France, Poland, and Belgium joined this meeting at the University of East Anglia (UEA), which is a part of the Norwich Research Park, one of Europe’s biggest communities of researchers in …
After primordial germ cells (PGCs) have colonized the gonadal ridge at roughly 3–5 weeks post conception (WPC), two successive development stages are observed during male gonadogenesis: sex determination of the bipotential gonads and testis differentiation. At 6 WPC, the SRY gene becomes expressed in the bipotent supporting cells in the gonadal coelomic epithelium, ventral to …