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FB2026_01
,
released March 12, 2026
Identified in a GWAS analysis of Chinese men with non-obstructive azoospermia, the human gene FOXN3 is proposed as a candidate gene for involvement in human male infertility and development of testicular germ cell tumors. FOXN3 is a transcriptional repressor involved in DNA damage-inducible cell cycle arrests (checkpoints). There is a single fly ortholog, CHES-1-like, for which amorphic alleles created by targeted recombination, RNAi-targeting constructs and alleles caused by insertional mutagenesis have been generated. CHES-1-like is also orthologous to the human gene FOXN2.
The FOXN3 gene has not been introduced into flies.
Animals carrying amorphic mutations of CHES-1-like are viable and fertile, and show no defects in spermatogenesis. Ectopic expression of CHES-1-like in germ cells significantly reduces male fertility; spermatogonia fail to differentiate after four rounds of mitotic division, but continue to divide to form tumor-like structures.
[updated Oct. 2019 by FlyBase; FBrf0222196]
FOXN3 is a member of the forkhead/winged helix transcription factor family; it appears to act as a transcriptional repressor. May be involved in DNA damage-inducible cell cycle arrests (checkpoints) at G1 and G2. [from Gene Cards, FOXN3; 2019.10.23]
Many to one: 2 human to 1 Drosophila.
Moderate-scoring ortholog of human FOXN3 and FOXN2 (1 Drosophila to 2 human). Dmel\CHES-1-like shares 25-26% identity and 36-39% similarity with the human genes.