This family is found in chordata . Functional characterization studies showed that the deletion of Spata46 in mice resulted in subfertility with abnormal sperm head shape and a failure of sperm-egg fusion [1]. Spata46 has also been shown to localize to the nuclear membrane by a transmembrane region in the N-terminal.

1: Deficiency of SPATA46, a Novel Nuclear Membrane Protein, Causes Subfertility in Male Mice. Chen J, Gu Y, Zhang Z, Zheng W, Yang L, Huang W, Lin S, Li Y, Guo H, Luo M, Ma Q, Jiang Z, Tang A, Gui Y; Biol Reprod. 2016;95:58. PMID:27488028