{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T03:17:42Z","timestamp":1790651862124,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,11]],"date-time":"2021-01-11T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1610323200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["31801238, 81871201 and 81760283"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["31801238, 81871201 and 81760283"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100012166","name":"National Key Research and Development Program of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2018YFC1003500"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2018YFC1003500"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100012166","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The calcium-binding protein spermatid-associated 1 (Cabs1) is a novel spermatid-specific protein. However, its function remains largely unknown. In this study, we found that a long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) transcripted from the Cabs1 gene antisense, AntiCabs1, was also exclusively expressed in spermatids. Cabs1 and AntiCabs1 knockout mice were generated separately (using Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat (CRISPR)-Cas9 methods) to investigate their functions in spermatogenesis. The genetic loss of Cabs1 did not affect testicular and epididymal development; however, male mice exhibited significantly impaired sperm tail structure and subfertility. Ultrastructural analysis revealed defects in sperm flagellar differentiation leading to an abnormal annulus and disorganization of the midpiece\u2013principal piece junction, which may explain the high proportion of sperm with a bent tail. Interestingly, the proportion of sperm with a bent tail increased during transit in the epididymis. Furthermore, Western blot and immunofluorescence analyses showed that a genetic loss of Cabs1 decreased Septin 4 and Krt1 and increased cyclin Y-like 1 (Ccnyl1) levels compared with the wild type, suggesting that Cabs1 deficiency disturbed the expression of cytoskeleton-related proteins. By contrast, AntiCabs1\u2212\/\u2212 mice were indistinguishable from the wild type regarding testicular and epididymal development, sperm morphology, concentration and motility, and male fertility. This study demonstrates that Cabs1 is an important component of the sperm annulus essential for proper sperm tail assembly and motility.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms22020652","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,11]],"date-time":"2021-01-11T11:36:11Z","timestamp":1610364971000},"page":"652","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":23,"title":["Cabs1 Maintains Structural Integrity of Mouse Sperm Flagella during Epididymal Transit of Sperm"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"22","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1227-866X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xiaoning","family":"Zhang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical School, Institute of Reproductive Medicine, Nantong University, Nantong 226019, China"},{"name":"Institute of Life Science, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330031, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Wenwen","family":"Zhou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical School, Institute of Reproductive Medicine, Nantong University, Nantong 226019, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Peng","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Life Science, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330031, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fengxin","family":"Gao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Life Science, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330031, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiuling","family":"Zhao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical School, Institute of Reproductive Medicine, Nantong University, Nantong 226019, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Winnie Waichi","family":"Shum","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 201210, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xuhui","family":"Zeng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical School, Institute of Reproductive Medicine, Nantong University, Nantong 226019, China"},{"name":"Institute of Life Science, Nanchang University, Nanchang 330031, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,11]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5274","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms21155274","article-title":"External and genetic conditions determining male infertility","volume":"21","author":"Jerzak","year":"2020","journal-title":"Int. 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