Vanjska gusta vlakna su citoskeletne strukture koje okružuju aksonemu u srednjem dijelu i glavnom dijelu spermatozoidnog repa. Vlakna funkcioniraju u održavanju elastične strukture i kretanju spermatozoidnog repa, kao i u zaštiti repa od smicajućih sila tokom epididimisnog transporta i ejakulacija. Defekti vanjskih gustih vlakana dovode do abnormalne morfologije sperme i neplodnosti. Ljudska vanjska gusta vlakna sadrže najmanje 10 glavnih proteina, a ovaj gen kodira glavni protein.[6]
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Hofferbert S, Burfeind P, Hoyer-Fender S, et al. (1994). "A homozygous deletion of 27 basepairs in the coding region of the human outer dense fiber protein gene does not result in a pathologic phenotype". Hum. Mol. Genet. 2 (12): 2167–2170. doi:10.1093/hmg/2.12.2167. PMID8111388.
Burmester S, Hoyer-Fender S (1997). "Transcription and translation of the outer dense fiber gene (Odf1) during spermiogenesis in the rat. A study by in situ analyses and polysome fractionation". Mol. Reprod. Dev. 45 (1): 10–20. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1098-2795(199609)45:1<10::AID-MRD2>3.0.CO;2-V. PMID8873064.
Shao X, Xue J, van der Hoorn FA (2001). "Testicular protein Spag5 has similarity to mitotic spindle protein Deepest and binds outer dense fiber protein Odf1". Mol. Reprod. Dev. 59 (4): 410–416. doi:10.1002/mrd.1047. PMID11468777. S2CID13590694.