ArticlePLoS genetics2012
RAB-like 2 has an essential role in male fertility, sperm intra-flagellar transport, and tail assembly.
Article in PLoS genetics, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 83 citations in OpenAlex.
- Unravelling deregulated metabolites in seminal plasma of infertile men: a systematic review and bioinformatic analysis.Journal of molecular medicine (Berlin, Germany) · 2026Pooled it
- PCM1 orchestrates centrosomal and flagellar protein transport to promote sperm maturation.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Strong Environmental and Genome-Wide Population Differentiation Underpins Adaptation and High Genomic Vulnerability in the Dominant Australian Kelp (Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- A tale of Rabs and the exocyst complex in ciliary trafficking and biogenesis.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2025Review
- The lack of Tex44 causes severe subfertility with flagellar abnormalities in male mice.Cellular & molecular biology letters · 2024Article
- Differential abundance of microRNAs in seminal plasma extracellular vesicles (EVs) in Sahiwal cattle bull related to male fertility.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2024Article
- The katanin A-subunits KATNA1 and KATNAL1 act co-operatively in mammalian meiosis and spermiogenesis to achieve male fertility.Development (Cambridge, England) · 2023Article
- The IFT81-IFT74 complex acts as an unconventional RabL2 GTPase-activating protein during intraflagellar transport.The EMBO journal · 2023Article
- RABL2 promotes the outward transition zone passage of signaling proteins in cilia via ARL3.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- SYPL1 defines a vesicular pathway essential for sperm cytoplasmic droplet formation and male fertility.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Ciliogenesis membrane dynamics and organization.Seminars in cell & developmental biology · 2023Review
- Phylogenetic reconstruction and evolution of the Rab GTPase gene family in Amoebozoa.Small GTPases · 2022Article
- HTR6 and SSTR3 ciliary targeting relies on both IC3 loops and C-terminal tails.Life science alliance · 2021Article
- Rabl2 GTP hydrolysis licenses BBSome-mediated export to fine-tune ciliary signaling.The EMBO journal · 2021Article
- Variants in RABL2A causing male infertility and ciliopathy.Human molecular genetics · 2020Article
- Deficiency of the Tbc1d21 gene causes male infertility with morphological abnormalities of the sperm mitochondria and flagellum in mice.PLoS genetics · 2020Article
- The essential role of intraflagellar transport protein IFT81 in male mice spermiogenesis and fertility.American journal of physiology. Cell physiology · 2020Article
- Binding of IFT22 to the intraflagellar transport complex is essential for flagellum assembly.The EMBO journal · 2019Article
- ALMS1 and Alström syndrome: a recessive form of metabolic, neurosensory and cardiac deficits.Journal of molecular medicine (Berlin, Germany) · 2019Review
- Ablation of miR-146b in mice causes hematopoietic malignancy.Blood advances · 2018Article
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A significant percentage of young men are infertile and, for the majority, the underlying cause remains unknown. Male infertility is, however, frequently associated with defective sperm motility, wherein the sperm tail is a modified flagella/cilia. Conversely, a greater understanding of essential mechanisms involved in tail formation may offer contraceptive opportunities, or more broadly, therapeutic strategies for global cilia defects. Here we have identified Rab-like 2 (RABL2) as an essential requirement for sperm tail assembly and function. RABL2 is a member of a poorly characterized clade of the RAS GTPase superfamily. RABL2 is highly enriched within developing male germ cells, where it localizes to the mid-piece of the sperm tail. Lesser amounts of Rabl2 mRNA were observed in other tissues containing motile cilia. Using a co-immunoprecipitation approach and RABL2 affinity columns followed by immunochemistry, we demonstrated that within developing haploid germ cells RABL2 interacts with intra-flagella transport (IFT) proteins and delivers a specific set of effector (cargo) proteins, including key members of the glycolytic pathway, to the sperm tail. RABL2 binding to effector proteins is regulated by GTP. Perturbed RABL2 function, as exemplified by the Mot mouse line that contains a mutation in a critical protein-protein interaction domain, results in male sterility characterized by reduced sperm output, and sperm with aberrant motility and short tails. Our data demonstrate a novel function for the RABL protein family, an essential role for RABL2 in male fertility and a previously uncharacterised mechanism for protein delivery to the flagellum.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.