Mitochondrial DNA sequencing and large-scale genotyping identifies MT-ND4 gene mutation m.11696G>A associated with idiopathic oligoasthenospermia.

Abstract

Genetic variants of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) were implicated to be associated with male infertility. Our previous whole mitochondrial genome sequencing and association study has identified two susceptibility mtDNA variants for oligoasthenospermia in Han Chinese men. In this study, we tested promising associations in an extended validation using 670 idiopathic oligoasthenospermia cases and 793 healthy controls to identify additional risk variants. We found that the genetic variant of m.11696G>A showed significantly higher frequency in the case group than that in the control group (odds ratio (OR) 2.21, 95% CI 1.21-4.04) (P=7.90×10-3). To elucidate the exact role of the genetic variants in spermatogenesis, two main sperm parameters (sperm count and motility) were taken into account. We found that m.11696G>A was associated with low sperm motility, with the OR of 2.38 (95 % CI 1.27-4.46) (P =5.22×10-3). These results advance our understanding of the genetic susceptibility to oligoasthenospermia and more functional studies are needed to provide insights into its pathogenic mechanism.

• Authors: Juan Ji, Miaofei Xu, Zhenyao Huang, Lei Li, Hongxiang Zheng, Shuping Yang, Shilin Li, Li Jin, Xiufeng Ling, Yankai Xia, Chuncheng Lu, Xinru Wang
• Journal: Oncotarget (Oncotarget) Vol. 8 Issue 32 Pg. 52975-52982 (Aug 08 2017) ISSN: 1949-2553 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 28881787 (Publication Type: Journal Article)