| Summary: | 碩士 === 台北醫學院 === 醫學研究所 === 89 === Abstract
The homeobox genes play a central role in animal development. These genes encode homeodomain proteins that act as transcription factors which regulate expression of gene cascades. The homeodomain of these homeobox genes, consisting of a conserved 60 amino-acid region, recognizes and binds to regulatory sites of their target genes, and then initiates gene cascades and cell type specificities. Tse1 is a novel mouse homeobox gene identified by degenerated-oligonucleotide PCR screening from a mouse testis cDNA library. A 839 bp cDNA fragment of Tse1 was used as a probe to screen testis cDNA library and obtained a 1117 bp full—length cDNA clone which encoded 293 a.a. with a Prd-like homeodomain. Analysis of tissue and stage expression patterns of Tse1 gene by Northern hybridization, we found that Tse1 transcript was about 1.2kb and mainly expressed in testis with the highest level at postnatal day 20. Tse1 transcript was also detected in c-kit mutant (w/ wv and wv/ wv) testes in which germ cells were depleted. These results suggest that Tse1 gene is possible expressed in somatic cells of testes. In situ hybridization further confirmed that Tse1 expressions were in spermatids and leydig cells and implied that Tse1 may play a role during spermatogenesis and may be involved in hormonal reguation during the puberty. Gene structure of Tse1 was identified by sequence comparison between cDNA and genomic DNA. Information obtained from these genomic DNA sequences will be used to construct the Tse1 knock-out construct and establish the Tse1 knock-out mice to elucidat the in vivo function of Tse1 in spermatogenesis.
|
|---|
