ABSTRACT
In the house-mouse the genotype WvWv is usually sterile. Young male mice of this genotype have been treated with high dosages of f.s.h. (follicle-stimulating hormone) or with f.s.h. associated with testosterone propionate; in some, a unilateral orchidectomy was carried out. Most of the animals thus treated showed a significant recovery in spermatogenesis; some of them, mated to fertile females, had offspring. Untreated WvWv males of our colony have always proved sterile. The sterility-inducing action of the Wv-factor is believed to be accounted for by a deficiency in f.s.h. secretion and/or to a low sensitivity of the germinative tissue to f.s.h. in addition to a deficiency of the primordial sex cells. The treatments did not increase testis size: apparently they stimulated the few derivatives of the primordial sex cells without increasing their number. But this may be sufficient to abolish the sterility of the WvWvmales.
