AURKC and spermatogenic failure 5: Moreover, mutations in the AURKC gene disrupt sperm chromatin during spermatogenesis, as demonstrated by Ben Khelifa et al. (2011) [26] and Dieterich et al. (2007) [27], who discovered a novel homozygous AURKC mutation responsible for macrozoospermia and showed that loss of aurora kinase C activity impairs histone removal and protamine incorporation.