Cloning and characterization of the human tektin-t gene.
Tektin-t is a part of the tektin protein family, the members of which form filamentous polymers in the walls of ciliary and flagellar microtubules. In mice, tektin-t protein has been localized to the tail of mature sperm, suggesting that it has a role in the formation of sperm flagella and/or sperm motility. In the present study, we have cloned a human orthologue of mouse haploid germ cell-specific tektin-t. The cloned human cDNA and the predicted amino acid sequence showed 82 and 83% identity with mouse tektin-t respectively. Included were a sequence conserved in the tektin B1 family, the TEKTIN2 motif, and the consensus sequence in the tektin protein family composed of nona-peptide. Northern blot analysis of mRNA isolated from various human organs showed that the transcript was approximately 1.7 kb in length and strongly expressed in the testis. Human (h-)tektin-t protein, having a molecular weight of 54 kDa, was exclusively expressed in the testis, whereas two additional stronger bands of 46 and 56 kDa existed in sperm. The h-tektin-t localized specifically to the principal piece of flagella and to the post-acrosomal region. The h-tektin-t gene was assigned to chromosome 1 by a radiation hybrid mapping technique.
Iguchi
Naoko
N
Department of Science for Laboratory Animal Experimentation, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University, Yamadaoka, Japan.
Tanaka
Hiromitsu
H
Nakamura
Yoshihiro
Y
Nozaki
Masami
M
Fujiwara
Tsutomu
T
Nishimune
Yoshitake
Y
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D002878:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 1 / Q000235:genetics*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008868:Microtubule Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013094:Spermatozoa / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D013737:Testis / Q000378:metabolism*
D008868:Microtubule Proteins; C044103:tektins