Avinash Gaikwad

• PhD Reproductive Biology
• PostDoc Position at University of Münster

The viscoelastic properties of the female reproductive tract influence sperm swimming behavior, but the exact role of these rheological changes in regulating sperm energetics remains unknown. Using high‐speed dark‐field microscopy, the flagellar dynamics of free‐swimming sperm across a physiologically relevant range of viscosities is resolved. A tr...

Background: Infertility affects around 15% of all couples worldwide and is increasingly linked to variants in genes specifically expressed in the testis. Well-established causes of male infertility include pathogenic variants in the genes TEX11, TEX14, and TEX15, while few studies have recently reported variants in TEX13B, TEX13C, FAM9A (TEX39A),...

Objective: To study the impact of Doublesex and mab-3-related transcription factor 1 (DMRT1) gene variants on the encoded protein's function and the variants' pathogenic relevance for isolated male infertility caused by azoospermia. Design: This study established a novel luciferase assay for DMRT1 missense variants using 2 different target promo...

Study question How does viscosity influence the flagellar beating behaviour of free-swimming bull, mouse, and human sperm? Summary answer Sperm flagellar beating behaviour exhibits a transition from an irregular three-dimensional (3D) beating at 5 mPa·s to an organized two-dimensional (2D) waveform at 20 mPa·s. What is known already Sperm migrate...

Sperm swim through the female reproductive tract by propagating a 3D flagellar wave that is self‐regulatory in nature and driven by dynein motors. Traditional microscopy methods fail to capture the full dynamics of sperm flagellar activity as they only image and analyze sperm motility in 2D. Here, an automated platform to analyze sperm swimming beh...

Fertilization requires sperm to travel long distances through the complex environment of the female reproductive tract. Despite the strong association between poor motility and infertility, the kinetics of sperm tail movement and the role individual proteins play in this process is poorly understood. Here, we use a high spatiotemporal sperm imaging...

We demonstrate a technique for investigating the energetics of flagella or cilia. We record the planar beating of tethered mouse sperm at high-resolution. Beating waveforms are reconstructed using Proper Orthogonal Decomposition of the centerline tangent-angle profiles. Energy conservation is employed to obtain the mechanical power exerted by the d...

Sperm swim through the female reproductive tract by propagating a 3D flagellar waveform. This 3D beating behaviour is self-regulatory in nature, coordinated by the dynein motor activity. Traditional microscopy methods image this swimming behaviour in 2D. However, they fail to capture the full dynamics of sperm flagellar activity in 3D. Here, using...

Background & objectives: Due to limited information available on the frequency and spectrum of cystic fibrosis (CF) transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene mutations in congenital bilateral absence of vas deferens (CBAVD) in Indian population, it is difficult to provide accurate genetic counselling to couples. The present study was underta...

While much is known about the microstructure of sperm flagella, the mechanisms behind the generation of flagellar beating patterns by the axoneme are still not fully understood. We demonstrate a technique for investigating the energetics of flagella or cilia. We record the planar beating of tethered wildtype and Crisp2-knockout mouse sperm at high-...

Background: Members of the cysteine-rich secretory proteins (CRISPS), antigen 5 (Ag5) and pathogenesis-related 1 (Pr-1) (CAP) superfamily of proteins are found across the bacterial, fungal, plant and animal kingdoms. Although many CAP superfamily proteins remain poorly characterized, over the past decade evidence has accumulated, which provides in...

Cysteine-rich secretory protein 4 (CRISP4) is a member of the CAP superfamily protein, is highly expressed in the male reproductive tract and is required for optimal mammalian fertility. CRISPs are characterized by the presence of 16 conserved cysteine residues which forms 8 disulphide bond spread across the N-terminal CAP domain, a hinge region an...

Background: The sperm protein IZUMO1 (Izumo sperm-egg fusion 1) and its recently identified binding partner on the oolemma, IZUMO1R, are among the first ligand-receptor pairs shown to be essential for gamete recognition and adhesion. However, the IZUMO1-IZUMO1R interaction does not appear to be directly responsible for promoting the fusion of the...

The Cysteine-RIch Secretory Proteins (CRISPs) are a group of proteins which show a pronounced expression biased to the male reproductive tract. While sperm encounter CRISPs at virtually all phases of sperm development and maturation, CRISP2 is the sole CRISP produced during spermatogenesis, wherein it is incorporated into the developing sperm head...

An abnormality of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene is known to be one of the etiologies of male infertility. CFTR gene mutations are associated with cystic fibrosis (CF-severe phenotype) to congenital bilateral absence of the vas deferens (CBAVD-mild phenotype). CF is the most common autosomal recessive disorders in t...

Background & objectives: The role of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene mutations in congenital bilateral absence of vas deferens and unilateral renal agenesis (CBAVD-URA) has been controversial. Here, we report the cases of five Indian males with CBAVD-URA. The objective was to evaluate the presence or absence of CFTR...

The aim of the present study was to predict the interaction between selected anticancer compounds and cancer target protein of different types of cancer. The following target proteins with their Protein Data Bank (PDB) ID were selected from each type of cancer, breast cancer- 1JNX, gastric cancer-1BJ7, brain cancer 1QH4, Lung cancer-2ITO and skin c...