In today’s Bulldog wrapup of life science and technology news:

  • Zika ravages testes of mice; study raises concern about men
  • Toyota to test car-sharing system that doesn’t use keys
  • German music industry, YouTube sign licensing fee deal
  • German music industry, YouTube sign licensing fee deal

The details:

  • Zika ravages testes of mice; study raises concern about men

Zika virus ravages the testes of male mice, sharply reducing sperm counts and fertility, says a study that raises a new specter about its threat to people.

Experiments found testes of infected mice shrank about 90 percent by weight, while their output of useful sperm fell by three-quarters on average, and often more.

Now it’s time to find out if Zika causes similar damage in men, experts said.

“We just don’t know that yet,” said Michael Diamond of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, a senior author of the study. The virus is known to infect a man’s reproductive system and persist in sperm and semen, “so it’s in the right place,” he said.

Diamond said he suspects that in mice, the damage is permanent.

But mice are not men, and experts unconnected with the study agreed that it can’t be assumed that the mouse results apply to people.

Shannan Rossi, who studies Zika in mice at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, noted that the researchers had suppressed the animals’ immune system defense against the virus. That’s a standard step in such experiments but it adds another level of difference from humans, she said.

Zika, which is transmitted by the bite of a tropical mosquito, is such a mild disease in people that most who get it don’t even know they are sick. But it can cause serious birth defects if women are infected while pregnant, so health officials have been concerned mostly with helping women who are pregnant or about to become pregnant avoid the disease.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland, said the study alerts researchers to look for effects in men.

  • Toyota to test car-sharing system that doesn’t use keys

Toyota will test a new car-sharing system next year that lets users unlock doors and start cars with their smartphones.

The Smart Key Box system eliminates the need for a physical key. Toyota will test the system in San Francisco with the Getaround car-sharing service starting in January. A Toyota investment fund put money into Getaround this month.

Toyota says a user’s phone will get codes to access the smart key box inside car-sharing vehicles. When the phone gets close to the vehicle, the codes are verified through the Bluetooth system.

  • US approves 2 types of genetically engineered potatoes

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved commercial planting of two types of potatoes that are genetically engineered to resist the pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine.

The approval announced Friday covers Idaho-based J.R. Simplot Co.’s Ranger Russet and Atlantic varieties of the company’s second generation of Innate potatoes.

The company says the potatoes will also have reduced bruising and black spots, enhanced storage capacity, and a reduced amount of a chemical created when potatoes are cooked at high temperatures that’s a potential carcinogen.

  • German music industry, YouTube sign licensing fee deal

A German music industry group says it has signed an agreement with YouTube on licensing fees for its members’ work — a deal that should mean far fewer blocked videos for viewers in Germany.

GEMA, which represents some 70,000 German composers, songwriters and music publishers, said Tuesday that the agreement with YouTube after seven years of “tough negotiations” will assure its members of payment for the use of copyrighted works. It didn’t specify financial details.

GEMA said that the agreement covers not just the future but the period stretching back to 2009.

The German group said it and YouTube still have differing views on whether YouTube or the people who upload videos are responsible for licensing works, and called on politicians to “create a clear legal framework.”