title: Identification and characterization of yak (Bos grunniens) b-Boule gene and its alternative splice variants.
abstract: Boule is responsible for meiotic arrest of sperms and male sterility during mammalian spermatogenesis. In the present study, we first identified yak b-Boule gene and its two alternative splice variants. The full length coding region of yak b-Boule is 888bp and encodes a 295-amino acid protein with a typical RNA-recognition motif (RRM) and a Deleted in Azoospermia (DAZ) repetitive sequence motif. Two alternative splice variants of yak b-Boule were generated following the consensus "GT-AG" rule and named b-Boule1 (36bp deletion in exon 3) and b-Boule2 (deletion of integral exon 7), respectively. In male yak, b-Boule, b-Boule1 and b-Boule2 were found to be exclusively expressed in the testes at a ratio of 81:0.1:1. Intriguingly, the mRNA expression levels of b-Boule and b-Boule1 in yak testis were significantly higher than those in cattle-yak, although no significant difference was observed for b-Boule2 expression between the yak and cattle-yak. These results suggest that b-Boule gene, which is partially regulated by alternative splicing, may be involved in the process of yak spermatogenesis.
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
authors.forename: Bojiang
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Liggins Institute, University of Auckland, Auckland 1142, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Sherry
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ngo
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
authors.forename: Wangjun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
authors.forename: Hongtao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
authors.forename: Zhuang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China. Electronic address: liqifa@njau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Qifa
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
authors.forename: Zengxiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Pan
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002417:Cattle / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D007248:Infertility, Male / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D020033:Protein Isoforms / Q000235:genetics; D022821:RNA Splice Sites / Q000235:genetics*; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D013091:Spermatogenesis / Q000235:genetics; D014018:Tissue Distribution
chemical_list: D020033:Protein Isoforms; D022821:RNA Splice Sites; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins
keywords: Expression; Splice variants; Yak; b-Boule