title: Characteristics of 292 testis-specific genes in human.
abstract: To explore their genomic and functional characteristics, 292 human testis-specific genes were obtained from a UniGene library and a full-scale analysis was made. Various bioinformatics tools were applied to analyze the gene ontology and chromosome location, and the expression profiles of eight selected candidates from the 292 genes were analyzed using RT-PCR for 12 adult human tissues. The results showed that of the total 292 genes, 153 were known (114 assigned genes and 39 named genes), and 139 were unknown. Of the 114 assigned genes, 63 were labeled to molecular function, 28 to cellular component, 23 to biological process. All 292 genes are distributed on human chromosomes at different gene density, lower gene density appears on chromosomes 21 (R=0.22), X (R=0.33), 14 (R=0.39), 10 (R=0.61), 8 (R=0.63), and 18 (R=0.67) and higher density on chromosomes 19 (R=3.65), 20 (R=1.83), 16 (R=1.74), and 17 (R=1.64). The expression profile of the eight selected genes in the 12 human tissues showed that five candidate genes: Hs.443729, Hs.115366, Hs.558087, Hs.534501, and Hs.132104 were expressed exclusively in human testis; Hs.132310, Hs.443299 were expressed highly in testis and also expressed weakly in human heart; Hs.160370 was expressed in human testis, ovary, uterus, and not expressed in other tissues. Our study can be a basis for characterization of the function of human testis-specific genes during male mammalian spermatogenesis.
authors.affiliation: Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Male Reproduction and Genetics, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital, Medical Center for PKU-HKUST, Shenzhen, PR China.
authors.forename: Aifa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Zhendong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Yaoting
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gui
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Libin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jianrong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Zhiming
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Cai
mesh_terms: D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D009928:Organ Specificity; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013091:Spermatogenesis / Q000235:genetics*; D013737:Testis / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger