A subtractive gene expression screen suggests a role for vanin-1 in testis development in mice.
The molecular pathways leading from indifferent mammalian gonad to either testis or ovary are not well understood. A number of genes, including the Y-linked sex determining gene SRY, have been shown to play roles in sex determination or differentiation, but there are clearly many missing elements to be found. We used suppression-subtractive hybridization to construct normalized cDNA libraries enriched for male-specific or female-specific transcripts in mouse fetal gonads. We describe the strategy used to efficiently screen these libraries for candidate sex-determination and gonadogenesis genes. One gene arising from these screens is vanin-1, which encodes a protein implicated in the induction of cell migration into the thymus. We find that vanin-1 is expressed male-specifically in Sertoli cells of the developing testis and may be involved in inducing cell migration from the adjacent mesonephros, a process known to be critical for testis development. This screening approach is likely to be applicable to the isolation and study of genes involved in a variety of developmental systems.
Bowles
J
J
Centre for Molecular and Cellular Biology, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Bullejos
M
M
Koopman
P
P
D000581:Amidohydrolases; D000818:Animals; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D058851:GPI-Linked Proteins; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D015723:Gene Library; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D050814:Octamer Transcription Factor-3; D019849:Sex Determination Processes; D013737:Testis / Q000196:embryology*; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics
D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D058851:GPI-Linked Proteins; D050814:Octamer Transcription Factor-3; C494174:Pou5f1 protein, mouse; D014157:Transcription Factors; D000581:Amidohydrolases; C022314:pantetheinase