Fig. 2

Qsox2 deletion impaired breeding capacity in female mice. A To create Qsox2 deletion, we bred Qsox2 ^flox/flox mice with SOX2-Cre mice to generate conditional but universal Qsox2 deletion. Later, four different genotype breeding pairs, including Qsox2 ^± male x Qsox2^± female, Qsox2 ^± male x Qsox2 ^−/− female, Qsox2 ^−/− male x Qsox2 ^± female, Qsox2 ^−/− male x Qsox2 ^−/− female were setup to examine the effects of Qsox2 deletion on the breeding capacity (B) No apparent effects were detected in Qsox2^flox/flox bred with SOX2-Cre as 86.6% pregnancy rate can be achieved. A slight decrease in the pregnancy rate (67%) was detected when heterozygous females (Qsox2 ^±) were bred with either heterozygous male or homozygous Qsox2 knockout males indicating that Qsox2 knockout in males did not greatly affect the breeding capacity. In contrast, when homozygous Qsox2 knockout females were involved, no pregnancy could be achieved. Fisher’s exact test indicated a significant decline (p value = 0.0047) in the pregnancy rate when compared with the F0 reference mating pair