Abstract
TCAM1P is a unitary pseudogene, which was disabled since the human–mouse divergence. Here we found that TCAM1P was specifically expressed in the human testis, with different cell type-specificity from mouse Tcam1, and characterized its transcripts. At the mouse locus, a multifunctional dual promoter–enhancer (DPE) controls the expression of Tcam1 and Smarcd2 genes. The corresponding human sequence was found to potentially function as a DPE, although the molecular mechanism was different from mouse. Interestingly, the change in DPE activity occurred before pseudogenization of TCAM1P. These data suggest the presence of a DPE in the human genome for the first time, and provide an important model of evolutionary changes in the regulatory mechanism of a pseudogene.
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