Abstract
With an increasing incidence of male idiopathic infertility, identification of novel genes involved in spermatogenesis is an important aspect for the understanding of human testicular failure. In the present study, we have identified a novel gene Spata33, also called as 4732415M23Rik or C16orf55, which is conserved in mammalian species. Spata33 was predominantly expressed in the postpartum and adult mouse testes at mRNA and protein levels. Its expression was increased during the first wave of the spermatogenesis, indicating that Spata33 may be associated with the meiotic process. Further immunohistochemistry analysis revealed that Spata33 was mainly expressed in the spermatocytes, spermatogonia and round spermatids. Its expression was uniformly distributed in the nucleus and cytosol in these germ cells, which was further confirmed by Spata33-tagged with GFP staining in the GC-1 and TM4 cells. These results indicated that Spata33 was predominantly expressed in the mouse testis and associated with spermatogenesis. Identification and characterization of the novel testis-enriched gene Spata33 may provide a new route for understanding of spermatogenesis failure.
Highlights
15% of human couples sustain some forms of infertility while nearly half of the causes are male infertility [1,2]
According the nomenclature of the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC) [29], we named it as Spata33 (Spermatogenesis associated 33)
Spata33 is Expressed During Spermatogenesis We further examined the timing of Spata33 expression during postnatal testis development in both mRNA and protein levels (Fig. 4A–C)
Summary
15% of human couples sustain some forms of infertility while nearly half of the causes are male infertility [1,2]. Spermatogenesis is a production process of mature sperm from the primordial germ cells (PGCs), which includes spermatogonium proliferation through mitosis, spermatocyte division by meiosis and spermatid differentiation. PGCs immigrate to incorporate into the sexually indifferent genital ridge, which differentiates into gonads. The spermatogonia enter the meiosis cell cycle around postnatal day 10 when preleptotene spermatocytes emerge. The haploid round spermatids first appear between day 18 and 20, and further undergo a series of dramatic morphological transformation during their differentiation into elongated spermatids. Mature sperm cells are produced from the center of the seminiferous tubules in approximately 35 days and a new round is initiated about every 12 days [3,4,5]
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