The people behind the papers – Chen Pan and Keisuke Shimada

Pyruvate dehydrogenase E1 subunit alpha 2 (PDHA2) is a testis-specific mitochondrial protein involved in energy metabolism and spermatogenesis. In their study, Keisuke Shimada and colleagues show that PDHA2 is crucial for normal spermatogenesis and it likely compensates for Pdha1, which is normally silenced during meiosis, in male germ cells. To find out more about their work, we spoke to the first author, Chen Pan, and the corresponding author, Keisuke Shimada, Associate Professor at the Laboratory of Disease Models, School of Veterinary Medicine, Rakuno Gakuen University, Japan.