Washington, July 16: The “Boule” gene, responsible for sperm production from insects to mammals including man, has remained unaltered for 600 million years that it has been in existence.
“This is the first clear evidence that suggests our ability to produce sperm is very ancient, probably originating at the dawn of animal evolution 600 million years ago,” said Eugene Xu, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at North Western University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Xu had discovered the gene in 2001.
“This finding suggests that all animal sperm production likely comes from a common prototype,” he added, reports the Public Library of Science-Genetics.
The discovery of the Boule gene’s key role in perpetuating animal species offers a better understanding of male infertility, a potential target for a male contraceptive drug and a new direction for future development of pesticides or medicine against infectious parasites or carriers of germs.
“Our findings also show that humans, despite how complex we are, across the evolutionary lines all the way to flies, which are very simple, still have one fundamental element that’s shared,” Xu said.
“It’s really surprising because sperm production gets pounded by natural selection,” he said, according to a Feinberg School release.
“It tends to change due to strong selective pressures for sperm-specific genes to evolve. There is extra pressure to be a super male to improve reproductive success,” said Xu.
“This is the one sex-specific element that didn’t change across species. This must be so important that it can’t change.”
Boule is likely the oldest human sperm-specific gene ever discovered, Xu said.
Prior to the new findings, it was not known whether sperm produced by various animal species came from the same prototype.
For the study, Xu searched for and discovered the presence of the Boule gene in sperm across different evolutionary lines: human, mammal, fish, insect, worm and marine invertebrate.
–IANS