{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,12]],"date-time":"2026-03-12T03:24:55Z","timestamp":1773285895090,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,25]],"date-time":"2020-01-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1579910400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004663","name":"Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["106-2313-B-002-039-MY3"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["106-2313-B-002-039-MY3"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004663","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004663","name":"Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["106-2314-B-195-006-MY3"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["106-2314-B-195-006-MY3"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004663","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004663","name":"Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["108-2811-B-002-582"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["108-2811-B-002-582"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004663","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The defective human survival motor neuron 1 (SMN1) gene leads to spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), the most common genetic cause of infant mortality. We previously reported that loss of SMN results in rapid differentiation of Drosophila germline stem cells and mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs), indicating that SMN also plays important roles in germ cell development and stem cell biology. Here, we show that in healthy mice, SMN is highly expressed in the gonadal tissues, prepubertal spermatogonia, and adult spermatocytes, whereas low SMN expression is found in differentiated spermatid and sperm. In SMA-like mice, the growth of testis tissues is retarded, accompanied with gamete development abnormalities and loss of the spermatogonia-specific marker. Consistently, knockdown of Smn1 in spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) leads to a compromised regeneration capacity in vitro and in vivo in transplantation experiments. In SMA-like mice, apoptosis and accumulation of the R-loop structure were significantly elevated, indicating that SMN plays a critical role in the survival of male germ cells. The present work demonstrates that SMN, in addition to its critical roles in neuronal development, participates in mouse germ cell and spermatogonium maintenance.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms21030794","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,27]],"date-time":"2020-01-27T07:41:11Z","timestamp":1580110871000},"page":"794","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":13,"title":["Survival Motor Neuron Protein Participates in Mouse Germ Cell Development and Spermatogonium Maintenance"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8754-5991","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Wei-Fang","family":"Chang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Biotechnology, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jie","family":"Xu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Advanced Models for Translational Sciences and Therapeutics, University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tzu-Ying","family":"Lin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Biotechnology, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jing","family":"Hsu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Biotechnology, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Hsiu-Mei","family":"Hsieh-Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Life Science, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei 116, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yuh-Ming","family":"Hwu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei 10449, Taiwan"},{"name":"Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mackay Medical College, New Taipei City 252, Taiwan"},{"name":"Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mackay Junior College of Medicine, Nursing, and Management, Taipei 11260, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4834-8554","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ji-Long","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"MRC Functional Genomics Unit, Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2JD, UK"},{"name":"School of Life Science and Technology, Shanghai Tech University, Shanghai 201210, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Chung-Hao","family":"Lu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei 10449, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1221-2476","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Li-Ying","family":"Sung","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Biotechnology, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan"},{"name":"Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan"},{"name":"Animal Resource Center, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,1,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Grice, S.J., and Liu, J.L. 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