DARWIN GROUP

Bi-allelic DNAH8 Variants Lead to Multiple Morphological Abnormalities of the Sperm Flagella and Primary Male Infertility

Liu, Chunyu and Miyata, Haruhiko and Gao, Yang and Sha, Yanwei and Tang, Shuyan and Xu, Zoulan and Whitfield, Marjorie and Patrat, Catherine and Wu, Huan and Dulioust, Emmanuel and Tian, Shixiong and Shimada, Keisuke and Cong, Jiangshan and Noda, Taichi and Li, Hang and Morohoshi, Akane and Cazin, Caroline and Kherraf, Zine-Eddine and Arnoult, Christophe and Jin, Li and He, Xiaojin and Ray, Pierre F and Cao, Yunxia and Touré, Aminata and Zhang, Feng and Ikawa, Masahito

Abstract

Sperm malformation is a direct factor for male infertility. Multiple morphological abnormalities of the flagella (MMAF), a severe form of asthenoteratozoospermia, are characterized by immotile spermatozoa with malformed and/or absent flagella in the ejaculate. Previous studies indicated genetic heterogeneity in MMAF. To further define genetic factors underlying MMAF, we performed whole-exome sequencing in a cohort of 90 Chinese MMAF-affected men. Two cases (2.2%) were identified as carrying bi-allelic missense DNAH8 variants, variants which were either absent or rare in the control human population and were predicted to be deleterious by multiple bioinformatic tools. Re-analysis of exome data from a second cohort of 167 MMAF-affected men from France, Iran, and North Africa permitted the identification of an additional male carrying a DNAH8 homozygous frameshift variant. DNAH8 encodes a dynein axonemal heavy-chain component that is expressed preferentially in the testis. Hematoxylin-eosin staining and electron microscopy analyses of the spermatozoa from men harboring bi-allelic DNAH8 variants showed a highly aberrant morphology and ultrastructure of the sperm flagella. Immunofluorescence assays performed on the spermatozoa from men harboring bi-allelic DNAH8 variants revealed the absent or markedly reduced staining of DNAH8 and its associated protein DNAH17. Dnah8-knockout male mice also presented typical MMAF phenotypes and sterility. Interestingly, intracytoplasmic sperm injections using the spermatozoa from Dnah8-knockout male mice resulted in good pregnancy outcomes. Collectively, our experimental observations from humans and mice demonstrate that DNAH8 is essential for sperm flagellar formation and that bi-allelic deleterious DNAH8 variants lead to male infertility with MMAF.