Sperm 'stunner' can lead to male birth-control pill

MELBOURNE: Reducing the swimming ability of the sperm could pave way to developing a new male contraceptive pill, Australian researchers have found.
Researchers have discovered a way to cut off the fuel supply to the 'motor' that drives human sperm, greatly reducing their swimming ability and opening a new avenue to develop a male contraceptive pill.The finding throws new light on the little-understood reasons for infertility in men, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Researchers, led by Moira O'Bryan from Monash University's school of biomedical sciences, engineered mutation in a gene called RABL2 that delivers protein fuel to the engine in a sperm's tail in mice. The mutation resulted in sperm tails that were 17% shorter than normal and a 50% reduction in sperm production.
The most striking result was that all mice with the mutated gene were rendered infertile and their sperm incapable of swimming.
"They weren't wriggling or going anywhere, they were just twitching. With this mutation, we get motors that don't work properly. To be fertile, sperm need motility ... or swimming ability," the paper quoted professor O'Bryan as saying.
O'Bryan collaborated with scientists from the University of Newcastle, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the University of Cambridge for the research.
She said a future male pill might work to inhibit the RABL2 gene rather than change it permanently.