Sperm donor anonymity and compensation: an experiment with American sperm donors.

Most sperm donation that occurs in the USA proceeds through anonymous donation. While some clinics make the identity of the sperm donor available to a donor-conceived child at age 18 as part of 'open identification' or 'identity release programs,' no US law requires clinics to do so, and the majority of individuals do not use these programs. By contrast, in many parts of the world, there have been significant legislative initiatives requiring that sperm donor identities be made available to children after a certain age (typically when the child turns 18). One major concern with prohibiting anonymous sperm donation has been that the number of willing sperm donors will decrease leading to shortages, as have been experienced in some of the countries that have prohibited sperm donor anonymity. One possible solution, suggested by prior work, would be to pay current anonymous sperm donors more per donation to continue to donate when their anonymity is removed. Using a unique sample of current anonymous and open identity sperm donors from a large sperm bank in the USA, we test that approach. As far as we know, this is the first attempt to examine what would happen if the USA adopted a prohibition on anonymous sperm donation that used the most ecologically valid population, current sperm donors. We find that 29% of current anonymous sperm donors in the sample would refuse to donate if the law changed such that they were required to put their names in a registry available to donor-conceived children at age 18. When we look at the remaining sperm donors who would be willing to participate, we find that they would demand an additional $60 per donation (using our preferred specification). We also discuss the ramifications for the industry.

Roles of FHIT and WWOX fragile genes in cancer.

It was hypothesized as early as 1986, that the recently discovered common fragile sites could facilitate recombination events, such as deletions and translocations, that result in clonally expanded cancer cell populations with specific chromosome alterations in specific cancer types. A natural extension of this hypothesis is that the clonal expansion must be driven by alteration of genes at recombination breakpoints whose altered functions actually drive clonal expansion. Nevertheless, when the FHIT gene was discovered at FRA3B, the most active common chromosome fragile region, and proposed as an example of a tumor suppressor gene altered by chromosome translocations and deletions, a wave of reports suggested that the FHIT gene was altered in cancer simply because it was in a fragile region and not because it had contributed to the clonal expansion, thus turning the original hypothesis upside down. Now, after nearly ten years and more than 500 FHIT reports, it is apparent that FHIT is an important tumor suppressor gene and that there are genes at other fragile regions that contribute significantly to development of cancer. A second fragile gene with a demonstrated role in cancer development is the WWOX gene on chromosome 16q; alterations to the WWOX gene contribute to development of hormone responsive and other cancers. Results of our recent studies of these two fragile tumor suppressor genes were summarized at the first Fragilome meeting in Heidelberg, Feb. 2005.

The mitotic exit network Mob1p-Dbf2p kinase complex localizes to the nucleus and regulates passenger protein localization.

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae mitotic exit network (MEN) is a conserved signaling network that coordinates CDK inactivation, cytokinesis and G1 gene transcription. The MEN Cdc14p phosphatase is sequestered in the nucleolus and transiently released in early anaphase and telophase. Cdc14p mediates mitotic exit by dephosphorylating Cdk1p substrates and promoting Cdk1p inactivation. Cdc14p also regulates the localization of chromosomal passenger proteins, which redistribute from kinetochores to the mitotic spindle during anaphase. Here we present evidence that the MEN protein kinase complex Mob1p-Dbf2p localizes to mitotic nuclei and partially colocalizes with Cdc14p and kinetochore proteins. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) experiments reveal that Mob1p, Dbf2p, and Cdc14p associate with centromere DNA and require the centromere binding protein Ndc10p for this association. We establish that Mob1p is essential for maintaining the localization of Aurora, INCENP, and Survivin chromosomal passenger proteins on anaphase spindles, whereas Cdc14p and the Mob1p-Dbf2p-activating kinase Cdc15p are required for establishing passenger protein localization on the spindle. Moreover, Mob1p, but not Cdc15p, is required for dissociating Aurora from the kinetochore region. These findings reveal kinetochores as sites for MEN signaling and implicate MEN in coordinating chromosome segregation and/or spindle integrity with mitotic exit and cytokinesis via regulation of chromosome passenger proteins.

Human LATS1 is a mitotic exit network kinase.

The kinase LATS/WARTS is a tumor suppressor protein conserved in evolution, but its function at the molecular level is not well understood. We report here that human LATS1 interacts with MOB1A, a protein whose homologue in budding yeast associates with kinases involved in mitotic exit. This suggested that LATS1 may be a component of the previously uncharacterized mitotic exit network in higher eukaryotes. Indeed, moderate overexpression of human LATS1 in cells exposed to microtubule poisons facilitated mitotic exit, and this activity required MOB1A. Reciprocally, small interfering RNA-mediated suppression of LATS1 or MOB1A prolonged telophase, but had no effect on the length of the earlier phases of mitosis. A role of LATS1 in mitotic exit may explain its previously described abilities to induce G2 arrest and promote cytokinesis.

A role for the Saccharomyces cerevisiae regulation of Ace2 and polarized morphogenesis signaling network in cell integrity.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae RAM is a conserved signaling network that regulates maintenance of polarized growth and daughter-cell-specific transcription, the latter of which is critical for septum degradation. Consequently, cells defective in RAM function (designated ramDelta) are round in morphology, form feeble mating projections, and fail to separate following cytokinesis. It was recently demonstrated that RAM genes are essential in strains containing functional SSD1 (SSD1-v), which encodes a protein of unknown function that binds the RAM Cbk1p kinase. Here we investigated the essential function of RAM in SSD1-v strains and identified two functional groups of dosage suppressors for ramDelta lethality. We establish that all ramDelta mutants exhibit cell integrity defects and cell lysis. All dosage suppressors rescue the lysis but not the cell polarity or cell separation defects of ramDelta cells. One class of dosage suppressors is composed of genes encoding cell wall proteins, indicating that alterations in cell wall structure can rescue the cell lysis in ramDelta cells. Another class of ramDelta dosage suppressors is composed of ZRG8 and SRL1, which encode two unrelated proteins of unknown function. We establish that ZRG8 and SRL1 share similar genetic interactions and phenotypes. Significantly, Zrg8p coprecipitates with Ssd1p, localizes similarly to RAM proteins, and is dependent on RAM for localization. Collectively, these data indicate that RAM and Ssd1p function cooperatively to control cell integrity and suggest that Zrg8p and Srl1p function as nonessential inhibitors of Ssd1p.

Involvement of the Fhit gene in the ionizing radiation-activated ATR/CHK1 pathway.

Fragile Histidine Triad (Fhit) gene deletion, methylation, and reduced Fhit protein expression occur in about 70% of human epithelial tumors and, in some cancers, are clearly associated with tumor progression. Specific Fhit signal pathways have not been identified, although it has been shown that Fhit overexpression leads to apoptosis in many cancer cell lines. We report in this study that Fhit-/- cells derived from gene knockout mice show much stronger S and G2 checkpoint responses than their wild type counterparts. The strong checkpoint responses are regulated by the ATR/CHK1 pathway, which contributes to the radioresistance of Fhit-/- cells. These results indicate an association of Fhit gene inactivation with increased survival after DNA damage, which is related to the over-active checkpoints regulated by the ATR/CHK1 pathway. These results also suggest the potential effects of Fhit-dependent DNA damage response on tumor progression.

The fragile histidine triad/common chromosome fragile site 3B locus and repair-deficient cancers.

In various studies of sporadic breast cancers, 40-70% were strongly positive for fragile histidine triad (Fhit) protein expression, whereas only 18% of BRCA2 mutant breast cancers demonstrated strong Fhit expression, suggesting that the BRCA2 repair function may be necessary to retain intact fragile common chromosome fragile site 3B(FRA3B)/FHITloci. In the current study, 22 breast tumors with deleterious BRCA1 mutations were analyzed for Fhit expression by immunohistochemistry in a case-control matched pair analysis. Loss of Fhit expression was significantly more frequent in the BRCA1 cancers compared with sporadic breast tumors (9% Fhit positive versus 68% Fhit positive), suggesting that the BRCA1 pathway is also important in protecting the FRA3B/FHIT locus from damage. To investigate the relationship between repair gene deficiencies and induction of chromosome fragile sites in vitro, we have analyzed the frequency of aphidicolin induction of chromosome gaps and breaks in PMS2-, BRCA1-, MSH2-, MLH1-, FHIT-, and TP53-deficient cell lines. Each of the repair-deficient cell lines showed elevated expression of chromosome gaps and breaks, consistent with the proposal that proteins involved in mismatch and double-strand break repair are important in maintaining the integrity of common fragile regions. Correspondingly, genes at common fragile sites may sustain elevated levels of DNA damage in cells with deficient DNA repair proteins such as those mutated in several familial cancer syndromes.