title: Cloning and characterization of the human Calmegin gene encoding putative testis-specific chaperone.
abstract: The putative chaperone Calmegin is required for sperm fertility in mouse and the relevance of the gene to certain cases of human male infertility has been suggested. In the present paper, we have isolated and characterized the human homolog cDNA of the mouse germ cell-specific Calmegin. The entire coding region of the human cDNA showed 80% identity with the previously reported mouse Calmegin. The predicted amino acid sequence showed strong conservation of the two sets of internal repetitive sequences (Ca2+ binding motif), and the hydrophilic COOH terminus, which corresponds to the putative endoplasmic reticulum (ER) retention motif. Our finding will support diagnosis of male infertility. Northern blotting analysis of various human tissues showed that the transcript was 3 kb in length and was expressed exclusively in the testis. Using the fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) technique, human Calmegin gene was mapped to chromosome 4q28.3-q31.1.
authors.affiliation: Department of Science for Laboratory Animal Experimentation, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Suita City, Japan.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ikawa
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tsuchida
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nozaki
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fujiwara
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Okabe
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nishimune
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000378:metabolism; D001483:Base Sequence; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D037281:Calnexin; D018833:Chaperonins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D002894:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 4; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D006801:Humans; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D008297:Male; D008677:Metaphase; D051379:Mice; D018832:Molecular Chaperones; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013737:Testis / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D018832:Molecular Chaperones; D037281:Calnexin; C087341:calmegin; D018833:Chaperonins