New Hope for Male Infertility Rests on Flagellar Protein

Scientists have identified a protein, FSIP2, present in sperm that is truncated in an infertile patient with multiple defects in the tail section of the sperm that allows the germ cell to swim and reach the egg for fertilization. When the protein is present in excess in mice, sperms are super-long and motile while when the protein is deleted in mice they become infertile. The study provides a novel target for fertility treatments.