| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
TANAKA Hromitsu Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Department of science for Laboratory Animal Experimentation, Research associate, 微生物病研究所, 助手 (10263310)
YOMOGIDA Kentaro Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Department of science for Laboratory Animal Experimentation, Associate Prof., 微生物病研究所, 助教授 (90283803)
NOZAKI Masami Research Institute for Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Department of science for Laboratory Animal Experimentation, Associate Prof., 微生物病研究所, 助教授 (30189394)
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| Research Abstract |
We have cloned haploid germ-cell-specific cDNAs from a subtracted cDNA library that was generated by subtracting the mRNA of 17-day-old mouse testes (before haploid germ cells develop) from the cDNA of 35-day-old mouse testes. Detailed mRNA expression analysis revealed that the genes corresponding to the cloned cDNAs were exclusively expressed in germ cells at all steps of differentiation, at specific steps of differentiation, or at specific steps in the development of haploid germ cells. The expression of all of these genes was developmentally controlled. The products of germ-cell-specific genes encoded products included proteins of all sorts of roles in aspect of cellular homeostasis. Particularly, some proteins represented germ-cell-specific isozymes of previously known enzymes in energy metabolism. We also isolated the genomic DNA of haploid-specific genes and identified a number of regulatory motifs in the gene-promoter regions that were essential for transcription. One of these motifs, the cyclic AMP response element, was present in the promoter regions of several testis-specific genes, and was deemed to be functionally important. However, the haspin gene-promoter region did not contain a CRE motif. Similarly, the promoter regions of the MMP-28 (Illman et al. 2001), Hormone-sensitive lipase (Blaise et al. 2001), ldhc(Jethanandani and Goldberg 2001), SP-10(Reddi et al. 1999) genes which were specifically expressed in haploid germ cells, did not contain CRE motifs. These findings suggest the existence of different haploid germ-cell-specific regulatory proteins that specifically regulate the expression of haploid germ-cell-specific genes. Here, we describe our recent findings regarding germ-cell-specific genes and gene, products, and we discuss the relevance of our approaches to the study of germ cell differentiation mechanisms.
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