Molecular Cloning of a Leucine Zipper Motif-containing Novel cDNA Specifically Expressed in Adult Mouse Testis

Abstract

A novel cDNA clone was isolated from a mouse testis cDNA library. This cDNA is 2,020 nucleotides in size and predicted to encode 527 amino acid residues with a molecular weight of 59.9 kDa. Protein sequence motif analysis revealed that the predicted protein contained one leucine zipper motif in its N-terminal portion and two basic domains in its C-terminal portion. Northern blot analysis of adult ICR mouse organs using the cDNA as probe demonstrated that an approximately 2.0-kb transcript was specifically expressed in testis. We therefore termed this novel cDNA tsec-2, testis-specifically expressed cDNAs-2. Results of Southern blot analysis suggested that the tsec-2 gene may exist as a single copy in the mouse genome.

Key Words:

• DNA sequence
• Northern analysis
• Southern analysis
• DNA-binding protein