Discovery of a spermatogenesis stage-specific ornithine decarboxylase antizyme: antizyme 3.

ABSTRACT: Previous studies with mice overproducing ornithine decarboxylase have demonstrated the importance of polyamine homeostasis for normal mammalian spermatogenesis. The present study introduces a likely key player in the maintenance of proper polyamine homeostasis during spermatogenesis. Antizyme 3 is a paralog of mammalian ornithine decarboxylase antizymes. Like its previously described counterparts, antizymes 1 and 2, it inhibits ornithine decarboxylase, which catalyzes the synthesis of putrescine. Earlier work has shown that the coding sequences for antizymes 1 and 2 are in two different, partially overlapping reading frames. Ribosomes translate the first reading frame, and just before the stop codon for that frame, they shift to the second reading frame to synthesize a trans-frame product.

SUBMITTER: Ivanov IP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC18314 | biostudies-literature | 2000 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature