Male infertility in reciprocal translocation carriers: the sex body affair.

Previous reports have linked chromosomal reorganization and spermatogenic failure. In this context, it has long been known that reciprocal translocation carriers are more likely to have anomalies in the meiotic process, including fertility failures. It has also been proposed that this fertility failure may be a consequence of an association between the translocated chromosomes and the sex body. In this work, we review different hypotheses explaining meiotic failure in these carriers, and propose a model that relates meiotic abnormalities with both sex body-translocation association and different checkpoints that are known to operate during meiosis. Copyright 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel.