Male birth control pill closer with CATSPER1

William Atkins
Saturday, 02 May 2009 18:37

Science - Biology

A drug for male contraception is progressing a bit faster these days thanks to a gene called CATSPER1.


CATSPER1, also known by the names CATSPER, MGC33335, and MGC33368, is a gene that controls the movement of sperm. Specifically, it allows sperm cells to dig into the egg to fertilize it.

Researchers from the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences in Tehran, Iran, originally were searching for defects in genes unrelated to infertility when they came upon the CATSPER1 gene.

According to the American Journal of Human Genetics article “Human Male Infertility Caused by Mutations in the CATSPER1 Channel Protein,” American and Iranian researchers analyzed the semen within two Iranian families, which have a mutation of the CATSPER1 gene, in order to study “autosomal-recessive male infertility.”

Its American-Iranian authors are: Matthew R. Avenarius, Michael S. Hildebrand, Yuzhou Zhang, Nicole C. Meyer, Luke L.H. Smith, Kimia Kahrizi, Hossein Najmabadi, and Richard J.H. Smith.

In the author’s abstract, they state, “CATSPER1 is one of four members of the sperm-specific CATSPER voltage-gated calcium channel family known to be essential for normal male fertility in mice.”

The abbreviation CATSPER1 is short for “cation channel, sperm associated 1.”

As such, this gene, residing in the flagellum, belongs to a family of cation channels that relate specifically to spermatozoa (male reproductive cells).

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