Fig.2

Ablation of METTL16 in mice causes aberrant spermatogonia differentiation. A Representative images of immunofluorescent staining for PLZF on testicular sections from Control (Ctrl) and Mettl16 cKO (cKO) mice at P8 and P10 are shown. The DNA was stained with DAPI. Scale bars = 50 μm. The right histogram shows the quantification of the number of PLZF⁺ cells per tubule in (A). Data were presented as mean ± SEM. n = 6. ns, not significant. B Representative images of immunofluorescent staining for GFRα1 on testicular sections from Control and Mettl16 cKO mice at P10 are shown. The DNA was stained with DAPI. Scale bars = 50 μm. The right histogram shows the quantification of the number of GFRα1⁺ cells per tubule in (B). Data were presented as mean ± SEM. n = 6. ns, not significant. C Representative images of co-immunofluorescent staining of c-KIT (green) and DDX4 (red) on P10 testicular sections from Control and Mettl16 cKO mice are shown. Scale bars = 50 μm. The right histogram quantifies the ratio of c-KIT⁺ DDX4⁺ cells to DDX4⁺ cells in (C). D Histogram shows the expression of genes involved in SSC maintenance and differentiation in P10 testes from Control and Mettl16 cKO mice. Gapdh was used for nominalization. Data were presented as mean ± SEM, n = 3. *P < 0.05. E Western blotting analyses of DDX4, c-KIT, and STRA8 in P10 testes from Control and Mettl16 cKO mice. GAPDH was used as a loading control. F Histogram shows the quantification of the protein expression in (E). Data were presented as mean ± SEM, n = 3. ***P < 0.001