Abstract
By hybridizing human adult testis cDNA microarrays with human adult and embryo testis cDNA probes, we identified a novel human testis gene, PINCH 2. PINCH 2 expression was 3.4-fold higher in adult than in fetal testis. The full length of its cDNA was 963. bp, with a 354-bp open reading frame (ORF), encoding a 117-amino acid protein. PINCH 2 was a splicing isoform of PINCH. It shared one exon, which encoded the LIM domain, with PINCH gene in human genome. Multitissue reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RTPCR) analysis revealed that this gene was expressed variably in a wide range of tissues, with high expression levels in human adult testis. These results suggest that PINCH 2, a novel LIM domain-containing gene, may play an important role in testicular development/spermatogenesis.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Eddy, E. M. (1998) Regulation of gene expression during spermatogenesis. Semin. Cell Dev. Biol. 9, 451–457.
Lewis, R. (1999) Human Genetics Concepts and Applications, 3rd ed. McGraw-Hill, Boston, MA.
Lawler, A. M. and Gearhart, J. D. (1998) Genetic counseling for patients who will be undergoing treatment with assisted reproductive technology. Fertil. Steril. 70, 412–413.
Escalier, D. (2001) Impact of genetic engineering on the understanding of spermatogenesis. Hum. Reprod. Update 7, 191–210.
Martin-du Pan, R. C. and Campana, A. (1993) Physiopathology of spermatogenic arrest. Fertil. Steril. 60, 937–946.
Andrews, J., Bouffard, G. G., Cheadle, C., Lu, J., Becker, K. G., and Oliver, B. (2000) Gene discovery using computational and microarray analysis of transcription in the Drosophila melanogaster testis. Genome Res. 10, 2030–2043.
Sha, J., Zhou, Z., Li, J., et al. (2002) Identification of testis development and spermatogenesis-related genes in human and mouse testes using cDNA arrays. Mol. Hum. Reprod. 8, 511–517.
Schlecht, U., Demougin, P., Koch, R., et al. (2004) Expression profiling of mammalian male meiosis and gametogenesis identifies novel candidate genes for roles in the regulation of fertility. Mol. Biol. Cell. 15, 1031–1043.
Diatchenko, L., Lau, Y. F., Campbell, A. P., et al. (1996) Suppression subtractive hybridization: a method for generating differentially regulated or tissue-specific cDNA probes and libraries. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93, 6025–6030.
Diatchenko, L., Lukyanov, S., Lau, Y. F., and Siebert, P. D. (1999) Suppression subtractive hybridization: a versatile method for identifying differentially expressed genes. Methods Enzymol. 303, 349–380.
Liang, P. and Pardee, A. (1992) Differential display of eukaryotic messenger RNA by means of the polymerase chain reaction. Science 257, 967–971.
Hansis, C., Jahner, D., Spiess, A. N., Boettcher, K., and Ivell, R. (1998) The gene for the Alzheimer-associated beta-amyloid-binding protein (ERAB) is differentially expressed in the testicular Leydig cells of the azoospermic by w/w (v) mouse. Eur. J. Biochem. 258, 53–60.
Anway, M. D., Johnston, D. S., Crawford, D., and Griswold, M. D. (2001) Identification of a novel retrovirus expressed in rat Sertoli cells and granulosa cells. Biol. Reprod. 65, 1289–1296.
Eickhoff, H., Schuchhardt, J., Ivanov, I., et al. (2000) Tissue gene expression analysis using arrayed normalized cDNA libraries. Genome Res. 10, 1230–1240.
Grimmond, S., Van Hateren, N., Siggers, P., et al. (2000) Sexually dimorphic expression of protease nexin-1 and vanin-1 in the developing mouse gonad prior to overt differentiation suggests a role in mammalian sexual development. Hum. Mol. Genet. 9, 1553–1560.
Rockett, J. C., Christopher Luft, J., Brian Garges, J., et al. (2001) Development of a 950-gene DNA array for examining gene expression patterns in mouse testis. Genome Biol. 2, RESEARCH0014.1-0014.9.
Schmeichel, K. L. and Beckerle, M. C. (1994) The LIM domain is a modular protein-binding interface. Cell 79, 211–219.
Retaux, S. and Bachy, I. (2002) A short history of LIM domains (1993–2002): from protein interaction to degradation. Mol. Neurobiol. 26, 269–281.
Kadrmas, J. L. and Beckerle, M. C. (2004) The LIM domain: from the cytoskeleton to the nucleus. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell. Biol. 5, 920–931.
Maul, R. S., Song, Y., Amann, K. J., Gerbin, S. C., Pollard, T. D., and Chang, D. D. (2003) EPLIN regulates actin dynamics by cross-linking and stabilizing filaments. J. Cell Biol. 160, 399–407.
Pomies, P., Macalma, T., and Beckerle, M. C. (1999) Purification and characterization of an alpha-actinin-binding PDZ-LIM protein that is up-regulated during muscle differentiation. J. Biol. Chem. 274, 29242–29250.
Suzuki, T., Nakamoto, T., Ogawa, S., et al. (2002) MICAL, a novel CasL interacting molecule, associates with vimentin. J. Biol. Chem. 277, 14933–14941.
Terman, J. R., Mao, T., Pasterkamp, R. J., Yu, H. H., and Kolodkin, A. L. (2002) MICALs, a family of conserved flavoprotein oxidoreductases, function in plexin-mediated axonal repulsion. Cell 109, 887–900.
Lundquist, E. A., Herman, R. K., Shaw, J. E., and Bargmann, C. I. (1998) UNC-115, a conserved protein with predicted LIM and actin-binding domains mediates axon guidance in C. elegans. Neuron 21, 385–392.
Tu, Y., Wu, S., Shi, X., Chen, K., and Wu, C. (2003) Migfilin and Mig-2 link focal adhesions to filamin and the actin cytoskeleton and function in cell shape modulation. Cell 113, 37–47.
Tadokoro, S., Shattil, S. J., Eto, K., et al. (2003) Talin binding to integrin beta tails: a final common step in integrin activation. Science 302, 103–106.
Tu, Y., Li, F., Goicoechea, S., and Wu, C. (1999) The LIM-only protein PINCH directly interacts with integrin-linked kinase and is recruited to integrin-rich sites in spreading cells. Mol. Cell. Biol. 19, 2425–2434.
Morgan, M. J. and Madgwick, A. J. (1999) The fourth member of the FHL family of LIM proteins is expressed exclusively in the testis. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 255, 251–255.
Takahashi, H., Koshimizu U., and Nakamura, T. (1998) A novel transcript encoding truncated LIM kinase 2 is specifically expressed in male germ cells undergoing meiosis. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 249, 138–145.
Birk, O. S., Casiano, D. E., Wassif, C. A., et al. (2000) The LIM homeobox gene Lhx9 is essential for mouse gonad formation. Nature 403, 909–913.
Rearden, A. (1994) A new LIM protein containing an autoepitope homologous to “senescent cell antigen”. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 201, 1124–1131.
Fukuda, T., Chen, K., Shi, X., and Wu, C. (2003) PINCH-1 is an obligate partner of integrin-linked kinase (ILK) functioning in cell shape modulation, motility, and survival. J. Biol. Chem. 278, 51324–51333.
Velyvis, A., Yang, Y., Wu, C., and Qin, J. (2001) Solution structure of the focal adhesion adaptor PINCH LIM1 domain and characterization of its interaction with the integrin-linked kinase ankyrin repeat domain. J. Biol. Chem. 276, 4932–4939.
Li, F., Zhang, Y., and Wu, C. (1999) Integrin-linked kinase is localized to cell-matrix focal adhesions but not cell-cell adhesion sites and the focal adhesion localization of integrin-linked kinase is regulated by the PINCH-binding ANK repeats. J. Cell Sci. 112 (Pt 24), 4589–4599.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Equal contributors.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Liu, Y., Liu, J., Chen, J. et al. Molecular cloning and characterization of a novel splice variant of the LIM domain family gene, PINCH 2, in human testis. Mol Biotechnol 35, 109–118 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02686105
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02686105