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21st September 2005 Glowing sperm could aid fertility research A technique to make sperm glow green could aid research into infertility, say scientists. A team from Oxford University have used a gene from jellyfish that makes a green protein and used it to create green sperm in hamsters. Hamster sperm is very similar to human sperm so researchers can study it to discover why fertility problems can happen. The team say the technique, which is published in the journal Biology of Reproduction, should make it possible to highlight specific genes and follow their progress. Lead researcher Dr John Parrington said, "Our real aim is to use this technique to study the function of genes that are important during fertilisation and that may cause infertility if they become defective. "That's an important goal given that a recent study found that one in seven British couples have fertility problems, and a third of these have an unknown cause." The fluorescent green protein only shows up in the mid-section of the sperm between the head and the tail. This is because the protein targets structures called mitochondria, which are only located in the midpiece. The fluorescence is only visible under a particular wavelength of light under a microscope. The Oxford team plan to focus on the mechanism by which sperm entering an egg triggers it to develop into an embryo rather than remaining in a state of suspended animation. Speaking to BBC news, Dr Alan Pacey, a fertility expert based at the University of Sheffield and secretary of the British Fertility Society, claimed the research as an "exciting development". He said "This will allow scientists to examine many aspects of sperm function that would previously have been impossible. "There is an awful lot to discover about how sperm work and why sometimes they fail to function properly."
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