Reproductive biology articles within Nature

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Disturbances in the gut microbiota of male mice manifest as fitness defects in their offspring by affecting plancenta function, revealing a paternal gut–germline axis.

    • Ayele Argaw-Denboba
    • , Thomas S. B. Schmidt
    •  & Jamie A. Hackett

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Upon hyperpolarization, the S4 voltage-sensing segment of sea urchin SLC9C1 moves down, removing inhibition caused by an intracellular helix and enabling Na+/H+ exchange, leading to pH-dependent activation of sAC and sperm chemotaxis.

    • Hyunku Yeo
    • , Ved Mehta
    •  & David Drew

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The culture of genetically unmodified human naive embryonic stem cells in specific growth conditions gives rise to structures that recapitulate those of post-implantation human embryos up to 13–14 days after fertilization.

    • Bernardo Oldak
    • , Emilie Wildschutz
    •  & Jacob H. Hanna

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A multiomics approach is used to produce a spatiotemporal atlas of the human maternal–fetal interface in the first half of pregnancy, revealing relationships among gestational age, extravillous trophoblasts and spiral artery remodelling.

    • Shirley Greenbaum
    • , Inna Averbukh
    •  & Michael Angelo

  • Article |

    Comparisons of steroid hormone concentrations in dentin samples from fossil mammoth tusks with those from a modern elephant tusk provide evidence of periodic increases in testosterone in the male mammoth characteristic of musth episodes.

    • Michael D. Cherney
    • , Daniel C. Fisher
    •  & Alexei N. Tikhonov

  • Article |

    Mouse induced pluripotent stem cells derived from differentiated fibroblasts could be converted from male (XY) to female (XX), resulting in cells that could form oocytes and give rise to offspring after fertilization.

    • Kenta Murakami
    • , Nobuhiko Hamazaki
    •  & Katsuhiko Hayashi

  • Article |

    A structure of the sperm-specific CatSper complex features a number of additional components; together, these components and the CatSper complex are termed the CatSpermasome.

    • Shiyi Lin
    • , Meng Ke
    •  & Jianping Wu

  • Article |

    Phylogenies of human placental cells based on whole-genome sequencing of bulk samples and microdissections reveal extensive mutagenesis in placental tissue, and suggest that mosaicism is a typical part of normal placental development.

    • Tim H. H. Coorens
    • , Thomas R. W. Oliver
    •  & Sam Behjati

  • News Feature |

    Jonathan Tilly defied decades of dogma by suggesting that women can make new eggs throughout their lives. Now some of his critics are taking a second look.

    • Trisha Gura

  • News & Views |

    What is the biological explanation for menopause, and for female survival beyond it? A study suggests that competition for help in ancestral societies may have been key to the evolution of this unusual human trait.

    • Kim Hill
    •  & A. Magdalena Hurtado

  • News & Views |

    There are well-established links between the reproductive system, metabolism and skeletal growth. But it comes as a surprise that the skeleton — more specifically, the bone hormone osteocalcin — modulates fertility.

    • Sonya M. Schuh-Huerta
    •  & Renee A. Reijo Pera

  • News & Views |

    Anticancer therapies can impair male fertility. Whereas men can opt to freeze their sperm before treatment, young boys don't produce mature sperm and so lack this choice. Work in mice offers hope for such patients. See Letter p.504

    • Marco Seandel
    •  & Shahin Rafii

  • News & Views |

    The hormone progesterone rapidly activates intracellular signalling in human sperm, regulating key aspects of their physiology. An ion channel unique to the sperm tail seems to relay progesterone's signal. See Letters p.382 & p.387 See Clarification  p.598

    • Steve Publicover
    •  & Christopher Barratt

  • Letter |

    Progesterone stimulates an increase in Ca2+ levels in human sperm, but the underlying signalling mechanism is poorly understood. Two studies now show that progesterone activates the sperm-specific, pH-sensitive CatSper calcium channel, leading to a rapid influx of Ca2+ ions into the spermatozoa. These results should help to define the physiological role of progesterone and CatSper in sperm, and could lead to the development of new classes of non-hormonal contraceptives.

    • Polina V. Lishko
    • , Inna L. Botchkina
    •  & Yuriy Kirichok

  • Letter |

    Progesterone stimulates an increase in Ca2+ levels in human sperm, but the underlying signalling mechanism is poorly understood. Two studies now show that progesterone activates the sperm-specific, pH-sensitive CatSper calcium channel, leading to a rapid influx of Ca2+ ions into the spermatozoa. These results should help to define the physiological role of progesterone and CatSper in sperm, and could lead to the development of new classes of non-hormonal contraceptives.

    • Timo Strünker
    • , Normann Goodwin
    •  & U. Benjamin Kaupp

  • News |

    Mouse studies suggest bone hormone affects male fertility.

    • Tiffany O'Callaghan

  • News & Views |

    In roundworms, age-related decline in egg quality is regulated by specific humoral signalling pathways. If similar mechanisms operate in mammals, these findings may suggest ways to delay reproductive ageing in women.

    • Kevin Flurkey
    •  & David E. Harrison

  • News |

    Insect sperm fight one another with brute force and chemical weapons.

    • John Whitfield

  • Letter |

    Male pregnancy is restricted to seahorses, pipefishes and their relatives, in which young are nurtured in the male's brood pouch. It is now clear that the brood pouch has a further function. Studies of Gulf pipefish show that males can selectively abort embryos from females perceived as less attractive, saving resources for more hopeful prospects later. This is the only known example of post-copulatory sexual conflict in a sex-reversed species.

    • Kimberly A. Paczolt
    •  & Adam G. Jones

  • Article |

    In mammals, embryos are considered to be sexually indifferent until the action of a sex-determining gene initiates gonadal differentiation. Here it is demonstrated that this situation is different for birds. Using rare, naturally occurring chimaeric chickens where one side of the animal appears male and the other female, it is shown that avian somatic cells possess an inherent sex identity and that, in birds, sexual differentiation is cell autonomous.

    • D. Zhao
    • , D. McBride
    •  & M. Clinton

  • Letter |

    The existence of all-female species of whiptail lizard, formed as a hybrid between sexual species, has been known since 1962; however, how the meiotic program is altered to produce diploid eggs while maintaining heterozygosity has remained unclear. Here it is shown in parthenogenetic species that meiosis initiates with twice the number of chromosomes compared to sexual species, and that pairing and recombination takes place between genetically identical sister chromosomes instead of between homologues.

    • Aracely A. Lutes
    • , William B. Neaves
    •  & Peter Baumann

  • Letter |

    Sperm can increase their swimming velocity and gain a competitive advantage over sperm from another male by forming cooperative groups, such that selection should favour cooperation of the most closely related sperm. Sperm of deer mice are now shown to aggregate more often with conspecific than heterospecific sperm, in accordance with this theory, whereas in a monogamous species lacking sperm competition, sperm indiscriminately group with unrelated conspecific sperm.

    • Heidi S. Fisher
    •  & Hopi E. Hoekstra

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