Translocations, the predominant cause of total sterility in sons of mice treated with mutagens.

Abstract

Histological and cytological analyses of the testes were carried out in 42 sterile sons of males treated in the spermatozoal or spermatid stage with 250 mg/kg ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) alone or after prefeeding with butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT); or treated with 200 R X-rays. Of the 42 sterile males, 17 had some mature spermatids, nine were blocked at diakinesis, 15 were blocked in pachytene, and one lacked spermatogenic cells altogether, having Sertoli cells only. Mitotic (spermatogonial) metaphases could therefore be analyzed in 41 of the males and meiotic configurations in 26.-(1) None of the males showed abnormalities in chromosome number, such as monosomy, trisomy, or mosaicism for either of these conditions. Certain classes of chromosome abnormalities that have been found associated with male sterility in other investigations, namely trisomies, XXY's, and X-autosome translocations, are not expected from treatment of 19A + Y cells when F(1) males are studied. (2) A very high percentage of the sterile males carried translocations. Direct meiotic evidence for this was found in 22 of the animals. In addition, 11 of the 16 that were blocked (or virtually blocked) in pachytene, and thus could be analyzed in mitosis only, consistently showed one abnormally short chromosome (or, one short plus one long), which presumably had resulted from unequal exchange (or sizable deficiency). Of the meiotically detected translocation males, 1 carried a T(A;Y), 17 had single autosomal translocations, and 4 had multiple autosomal rearrangements involving three, four, four, and six breaks, respectively. In addition, three males showed failure of X-Y pairing. (3) Translocations that cause sterility, rather than partial sterility, in males appear to be those in which at least one of the breaks occurs close to one end of a chromosome. The mitotic and meiotic evidences for this were found to be correlated. (4) It is proposed that many cases of induced F(1) male sterility may be the result of position effects produced when paracentromeric regions are translocated to euchromatic regions of certain other chromosomes. Since many translocations that produce partial sterility in the female cause complete sterility in the male, the male must be assumed to be more susceptible to disturbances of fertility by the postulated mechanism. (5) There is evidence that EMS, especially in the lower dose range, more often breaks chromosomes near one of their ends than does X-irradiation.