title: Zebrafish spata2 is expressed at early developmental stages.
abstract: Spata2 (spermatogenesis-associated protein 2) was originally described as a novel gene involved in the spermatogenic process. In this study, we cloned a potential zebrafish spata2 orthologue. The consensus open reading frame (1650 bp) encodes a polypeptide of 550 amino acids which shares 37% identity with the human SPATA2. Bioinformatic analysis reveals a small pattern PW [KR] KE [YF][RK] which seems to be of particular interest in the light of its strong conservation between SPATA2 and the recently discovered TAMO protein of D. melanogaster. RT-PCR analysis in adult zebrafish tissues revealed that spata2 mRNA has a broad distribution. Whole-mount in situ hybridization demonstrated that spata2 transcripts are maternally derived and becomes strongly localized in the central nervous system at early developmental stages. From 5 dpf, spata2 expression becomes detectable in the gut and pronephric duct epithelium, suggesting a wide tissue function during vertebrate development.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Biology, University of Padua, Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Moro
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Maran
authors.forename: M Liliana
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Slongo
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Argenton
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Toppo
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Onisto
mesh_terms: D020413:3' Untranslated Regions; D020121:5' Untranslated Regions; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018388:Codon, Terminator; D019295:Computational Biology; D016384:Consensus Sequence; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D009928:Organ Specificity; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017433:Protein Structure, Secondary; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D011506:Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013091:Spermatogenesis / Q000235:genetics; D013737:Testis / Q000378:metabolism; D014018:Tissue Distribution; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000196:embryology*; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D020413:3' Untranslated Regions; D020121:5' Untranslated Regions; D018388:Codon, Terminator; D018076:DNA, Complementary; D011506:Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; C425523:SPATA2 protein, human; C522426:Spata2 protein, zebrafish; D029961:Zebrafish Proteins