title: Involvement of the single Cul4 gene of Chinese mitten crab Eriocheir sinensis in spermatogenesis.
abstract: The Cullin-RING finger ligases (CRLs) are involved in the ubiquitin-mediated degradation of cell cycle regulators and play an important role in gametogenesis. Cullin 4 (CUL4) is a conserved core component of a new class of ubiquitin E3 ligase, and participates in the proteolysis of several regulatory proteins through the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway. The mammals encode two paralogs of CUL4, CUL4A and CUL4B, and the two Cul4 genes are functionally redundant. However, Drosophila or other metazoans only contain one Cul4 gene. Here we cloned the Cul4 gene and confirmed that there is only one protein of CUL4 in Eriocheir sinensis, a full length Cul4 comprised of 2777 nucleotides, an open-reading frame of 2373bp encoding 790 amino acid residues. The expression level of Cul4 mRNAs, as demonstrated by quantitative real-time PCR, varied significantly during testis development, with the greatest transcript levels found at an early stage. Localization analysis using antibodies against CUL4A/4B in the reproductive system showed that EsCUL4 mainly distribute in spermatogonia and primary spermatocytes, and gradually reduced during the development and maturation of sperm. The results indicated that a single CUL4 protein may play a role in spermatogenesis in E. sinensis.
authors: School of Life Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
authors: Yuan-Li
authors: YL
authors: Wang
authors: School of Life Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
authors: Qing
authors: Q
authors: Li
authors: School of Life Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
authors: Jing
authors: J
authors: Xie
authors: School of Life Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
authors: Ming
authors: M
authors: Zhu
authors: School of Life Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China.
authors: Wen-Juan
authors: WJ
authors: Sun
authors: School of Life Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China. Electronic address: Ihe@bio.ecnu.edu.cn.
authors: Lin
authors: L
authors: He
authors: School of Life Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai, China. Electronic address: qwang@bio.ecnu.edu.cn.
authors: Qun
authors: Q
authors: Wang
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D003386:Brachyura / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D044842:Cullin Proteins / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013091:Spermatogenesis / Q000235:genetics*; D014018:Tissue Distribution
chemical_list: D044842:Cullin Proteins
keywords: 3, 3′N-diaminobenzidine tertrahydrochloride; 6-diamidine-2-phenylidole-dihydrochlo-ride; CRLs; CUL4; Cullin 4; Cullin-RING finger ligases; DAB; DAPI; E3; EST; Eriocheir sinensis; GSP; H&E; HRP; IF; IHC; Immunohistochemistry; Nedd8; ORF; PBS; PFA; RACE; SE; Spermatogenesis; UPP; expressed sequence tag; gene-specific primer; hematoxylin and eosin; horseradish peroxidase; immunofluorescence; immunohistochemistry; neural precursor cell-expressed developmentally downregulated 8; open reading frame; paraformaldehyde; phosphate-buffered saline; qRT-PCR; quantitative real-time PCR; rapid amplification of cDNA end; standard error; the ubiquitin proteasome pathway; ubiquitin-ligases