<b><i>Mus musculus</i></b> Barrier-To-Autointegration Factor 2 (<b><i>Banf2</i></b>) is Not Essential for Spermatogenesis or Fertility

The barrier-to-autointegration factor (<i>BAF</i>) is widely expressed in most human tissues and plays a critical role in chromatin organization, nuclear envelope assembly, gonadal development, and embryonic stem cell self-renewal. Complete loss of <i>BAF</i> has been shown to lead to embryonic lethality and gonadal defects. The <i>BAF</i> paralog, namely, barrier-to-autointegration factor 2 (<i>BANF2</i>), exhibits a testis-predominant expression pattern in both humans and mice. Unlike <i>BAF</i>, it may cause isolated male infertility. Therefore, we used the CRISPR/Cas9 system to generate <i>Banf2</i>-knockout mice to further study its function in spermatogenesis. Unexpectedly, knockout mice did not show any detectable abnormalities in histological structure of the testis, epididymis, ovary, and other tissues, and exhibited normal fertility, indicating that <i>Banf2</i> is not essential for mouse spermatogenesis and fertility.