Mild reproductive impact of a Y chromosome deletion on a C57BL/6J substrain

A recently reported deletion of about 40 Mb in length between 6.12/6.57 and 46.73/47.31 Mb on the Y chromosome long arm of the C57BL/6JBomTac inbred strain made us closely examine the strain’s breeding history and reproductive characteristics. We verified that the two copies of Rbm31y that are present inside the putative deletion were indeed deleted. This inbred strain presents an expected litter size for a C57BL/6 substrain. In vitro fertilization (IVF) efficiency and breeding efficiencies are comparable to those of the C57BL/6NTac substrain; however, the male/female sex ratio in the C57BL/6JBomTac is mildly skewed towards females. There is an increase in the percentage of sperm shape abnormalities found in C57BL/6JBomTac (35%) versus C57BL/6NTac (11%). The most frequent type of sperm abnormality observed is bent heads (19%). Additionally, there is deregulation of several transcripts expressed in the testes. We determined that this mutation arose in the C57BL/6JBomTac Foundation Colony in 2008, and it was completely fixed in the colony by 2009.