Complex transcriptional control of the AZFa gene DDX3Y in human testis.

ABSTRACT: The human DEAD-box Y (DBY) RNA helicase (aka DDX3Y) gene is thought to be the major azoospermia factor a (AZFa) gene in proximal Yq11. Men with its deletion display no somatic pathologies, but suffer from complete absence of germ cells. Accordingly, DDX3Y protein is expressed only in the germline in spermatogonia, although the transcripts were found in many tissues. Here, we show the complex transcriptional control of a testis-specific DDX3Y transcript class with initiation at different sites upstream of the gene's open reading frame (5'Untranslated Region; UTR) and with polyadenylation in their proximal 3'UTR. The most distal transcriptional start site (TSS; ∼1 kb upstream) was mapped in MSY2, a Y-specific minisatellite. As this testis-specific 5'UTR was subsequently processed by three al

SUBMITTER: Rauschendorf MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3039753 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature