Table 1.
Onset of puberty determined by age at vaginal opening and first estrus
Figure 1.
Reduced fertility in Magel2-null mice.
(A) Fertility rate was measured by pairing mice and monitoring the cages for births, with pairs split when the female mouse was visibly pregnant. The fertility rate is the percentage of pairings that resulted in a litter, for each age group. The control littermate fertility rate includes mice aged 7–35 weeks. The fertility rate for Magel2-null mice is split into three age categories as marked. All mice tested were paired with C57BL/6 mice that were 6–10 weeks old. Declining fertility in the Magel2-null mice of both sexes is evident by 19 weeks of age, with infertility beyond 24 weeks of age. (B) Breeding interval was determined by subtracting gestational length from the number of days between pairing and birth. Extended breeding intervals are seen in both male and female Magel2-null mice. *p<0.001; **p<0.01 for Magel2-null versus control, error bars represent SEM.
Figure 2.
Testicular histology in Magel2-null males.
(A, C) Hematoxylin and eosin stained paraffin sections of control testes from 10 (A) and 24 week old (C) males. (B, D) Sections from Magel2-null males at both 10 (B) and 24 weeks (D) show no difference from control sections.
Figure 3.
Ovarian histology in Magel2-null females.
(A, C) Hematoxylin and eosin stained paraffin sections of control ovaries from 10 (A) and 24 week old (C) females. (B, D) Sections from Magel2-null females at 10 weeks (B) show no difference from control sections, while sections from 24 week females are notably lacking corpora lutea (indicated by *)(D).
Figure 4.
Magel2-null females display longer and irregular estrus cycles determined by vaginal cytology.
Representative examples of estrous cycling patterns from two individual female mice of each genotype are shown for each of the two ages tested. (A–B) 10 week old control females display regular 4–5 day cycles while 10 week old Magel-2 null females spend longer periods in estrus and diestrus, and experience fewer proestrus events (C–D). At 26 weeks of age, control females still display regular cycles (E–F) while Magel2-null animals have further deteriorated cycling patterns (G–H). The Y-axis represents estrus stage: E, Estrus; D, Diestrus; P, Proestrus.
Figure 5.
Altered olfaction in Magel2-null mice.
A) Latency to find buried food tested in 10-week old mice. B) 24 week-old Magel2-null mice have increased latency to locate the food following a fast in the buried food olfaction test. C) Three way olfactory preference test. For both genotypes, the percent time spent with clean bedding is less than the percent time with soiled bedding (i.e. the sum of the percent time spent with female-soiled bedding and the percent time spent with male-soiled bedding). However, within the time spent with the two soiled bedding choices, control males prefer female-soiled bedding, while Magel2-null males spend an equivalent amount of time with the male-soiled bedding as they do with the female-soiled bedding. * p<0.05 (control vs. Magel2-null), error bars represent SEM.