Figure 1

Morphological examination of the testis tissues from young wild-type (panels A and C) and Mer³ (panels B and D) males. The control FM6 and Mer³ mutant males were obtained according to Materials and Methods. The DAPI-stained testis from the control male contained a bulging seminal vesicle (SV) (A). In contrast, a shriveled seminal vesicle was seen in the Mer³ testis (B). T, testis; AG, accessory gland. Acetic acid/orcein staining revealed that the testis tissue from the control male contained well-organized sperm bundles (arrows) (C), while the Mer³ testis had fewer sperm in a more disorganized bundle (arrows) (D).