Relevance of cystein-rich secretory proteins for male fertility

Abstract

Cysteine-Rich Secretory Protein (CRISP) 1, 2, 3 and 4 are mainly expressed in thereproductive tract and have key roles in mammalian fertilization. In spite of this,knockout (KO) mice for each individual protein are fertile whereas double KO(DKO) CRISP1/CRISP4 are subfertile, suggesting the existence of compensatorymechanisms between homologous CRISP family members. Recent results fromour lab revealed that DKO CRISP1/CRISP3 are also subfertile.