title: Epigenetic regulation of bovine spermatogenic cell-specific gene boule.
abstract: Non-primate mammals have two deleted azoospermia (DAZ) family genes, DAZL and Boule; genes in this family encode RNA-binding proteins essential for male fertility in diverse animals. Testicular DAZL transcription is regulated by epigenetic factors such as DNA methylation. However, nothing is known about the epigenetic regulation of Boule. Here, we explored the role of DNA methylation in the regulation of the bovine Boule (bBoule) gene. We found that a long CpG island (CGI) in the bBoule promoter was hypermethylated in the testes of cattle-yak hybrids with low bBoule expression, whereas cattle had relatively low methylation levels (P < 0.01), and there was no difference in the methylation level in the short CGI of the gene body between cattle and cattle-yak hybrids (P > 0.05). We identified a 107 bp proximal core promoter region of bBoule. Intriguingly, the differences in the methylation level between cattle and cattle-yak hybrids were larger in the core promoter than outside the core promoter. An in vitro methylation assay showed that the core promoter activity of bBoule decreased significantly after M.SssI methylase treatment (P < 0.01). We also observed dramatically increased bBoule transcription in bovine mammary epithelial cells (BMECs) after treatment with the methyltransferase inhibitor 5-Aza-dC. Taken together, our results establish that methylation status of the core promoter might be involved in testicular bBoule transcription, and may provide new insight into the epigenetic regulation of DAZ family genes and clinical insights regarding male infertility.
authors.affiliation: College of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
authors.forename: Wang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: Institute of Animal Science, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, China.
authors.forename: Yinxia
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
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: College of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Luo
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: Zengxiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Pan
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.
authors.forename: Qifa
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D002460:Cell Line; D018899:CpG Islands / Q000235:genetics; D019175:DNA Methylation / Q000235:genetics; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic; D006824:Hybridization, Genetic; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D013045:Species Specificity; D013091:Spermatogenesis / Q000235:genetics*; D013737:Testis / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D016601:RNA-Binding Proteins