Nefarious Signals

Carefully coordinated signals keep trains shooting through underground tunnels. And signals in the seminiferous tubules of the testes help coordinate the production and progression of sperm. Signal failures in the testes may contribute to infertility. To better understand the physiological principles that control seminiferous tubule function, researchers studied the patterns of calcium signalling in three types of tubule lining cells - Sertoli (red in the tubule pictured), peritubular (green) and germ cells. By monitoring calcium concentration the study revealed underlying mechanisms of signal strength and control, pinpointing distinct signal patterns in each cell type. The work showed hormones involved in controlling sperm production can regulate calcium signalling in Sertoli cells. Better understanding of how tubule function is controlled and sperm produced may help reveal the nefarious effects of signal errors that impair testicular function and fertility.

Image made using Leica Microsystems microscopy

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

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• Image from work by Justine A. Fischoeder, David Fleck, Jerome Schröer & Christopher Wiesbrock, and colleagues
• Department of Chemosensation, Institute for Biology II, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany, Research Training Group 2416 MultiSenses – MultiScales, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in PLOS Biology, July 2026