据国外媒体报道，科学家最新研究发现，几乎所有生物体内（包括海葵、蠕虫、昆虫、海洋无脊椎动物、鱼类、人类）精子中含有一种相同的基因。地球生物于6亿年前开始拥有这种精子基因，并在逐渐进化中保存在各种生物体内。
一篇有关此项研究的报告于7月15日发表在PLoS Genetics杂志上，来自美国西北大学的遗传学家徐尤金（Eugene Xu）是该项研究报告的联合作者之一。他表示：“精子在许多动物的体内繁殖，但是之前并没有确凿的证据能够证明这些动物体内繁殖的精子是来自一个共同的起源：”
来自斯坦福大学的干细胞研究中心的主任勒内·锐捷·佩拉(Renee Reijo Pera)表示，此项研究结果相当有趣，动物体内的精子细胞有如此多的相似之处，但是各个物种之间的精子细胞又有许多的不同点以示区别。她说：“如果人类产生的卵子可以被一只猴子受精，那是相当怪异的。而基因最大的特点就在于，除了有许多的共同点，来保持其基本的功能之外，各个物种之间又存在的许多差异性。”
为了证实这种被称为博尔（BOULE）的基因的存在，徐和他的团队通过研究不同物种的演化过程，终于在海葵，海胆，果蝇，虹鳟鱼，公鸡和老鼠的精子中找到了答案。在海葵这种地球上最原始的动物以及其他动物体内发现博尔（BOULE）的存在，证实了这种基因的古老起源。
徐还表示，博尔（BOULE）是唯一的一种被科学家发现的只有制造精子功能的基因，这将为男性避孕药的设计提供新的思路，并且可以将这种特性运用到防止传染病、寄生虫和病菌的繁殖的发生，因为它不会对人类身体的其他进程造成伤害。博尔（BOULE）不是科学家发现的唯一的一种被所有动物所共享的基因，除此之外，还有一些共享基因，例如控制眼睛和心脏发育的基因。
植物与真菌的体内缺乏博尔（BOULE）基因，这意味着植物精子，或者花粉很有可能是完全不同于动物精子的产生的。(生物谷Bioon.net)
生物谷推荐原文出处：
PLoS Genetics doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1001022
Widespread Presence of Human BOULE Homologs among Animals and Conservation of Their Ancient Reproductive Function
Chirag Shah#, Michael J. W. VanGompel#, Villian Naeem, Yanmei Chen, Terrance Lee, Nicholas Angeloni, Yin Wang, Eugene Yujun Xu*
Division of Reproductive Biology Research, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Center for Genetic Medicine, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America
Sex-specific traits that lead to the production of dimorphic gametes, sperm in males and eggs in females, are fundamental for sexual reproduction and accordingly widespread among animals. Yet the sex-biased genes that underlie these sex-specific traits are under strong selective pressure, and as a result of adaptive evolution they often become divergent. Indeed out of hundreds of male or female fertility genes identified in diverse organisms, only a very small number of them are implicated specifically in reproduction in more than one lineage. Few genes have exhibited a sex-biased, reproductive-specific requirement beyond a given phylum, raising the question of whether any sex-specific gametogenesis factors could be conserved and whether gametogenesis might have evolved multiple times. Here we describe a metazoan origin of a conserved human reproductive protein, BOULE, and its prevalence from primitive basal metazoans to chordates. We found that BOULE homologs are present in the genomes of representative species of each of the major lineages of metazoans and exhibit reproductive-specific expression in all species examined, with a preponderance of male-biased expression. Examination of Boule evolution within insect and mammalian lineages revealed little evidence for accelerated evolution, unlike most reproductive genes. Instead, purifying selection was the major force behind Boule evolution. Furthermore, loss of function of mammalian Boule resulted in male-specific infertility and a global arrest of sperm development remarkably similar to the phenotype in an insect boule mutation. This work demonstrates the conservation of a reproductive protein throughout eumetazoa, its predominant testis-biased expression in diverse bilaterian species, and conservation of a male gametogenic requirement in mice. This shows an ancient gametogenesis requirement for Boule among Bilateria and supports a model of a common origin of spermatogenesis.
