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(738) STAGE-SPECIFIC EXPRESSION OF Asb-4, Asb-9, AND Asb-17 DURING MOUSE TESTIS DEVELOPMENT AND SPERMATOGENESIS. Kim, Kye Seong1, Kim, Soo-Kyung1, Kim, Myung-Sun1, Baek, Kwang-Hyun1, Baek, Doo Jin2, 1 Cell & Gene Therapy Research Institute, Seoul, Republic of Korea2 Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Seoul, Republic of Korea ABSTRACT- The suppressor of cytokine signaling (SOCS) box motif, stretching approximately 40 amino acids, has been identified in a number of proteins. It has been shown that these proteins inhibit signaling pathways initiated by cytokines, hormones, and growth factors through direct interactions with JAK kinases or activated cytokine receptors. The ankyrin repeat, extending approximately 33 amino acids, is found in proteins with a wide variety of functions including receptors, transcription factors, tumor suppressors, and cell cycle regulators. Even though ankyrin repeats have been found in a number of proteins, their cellular functions are poorly understood. We report here the characterization of a member of the ankyrin repeat-containing SOCS box protein family, Asb-4, Asb-9, and Asb-17, and it is tissue- and stage-specifically expressed in mouse testis. * This work was supported by a grant (SC12011) from Stem Cell Research Center of the 21C Frontier R&D Program funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Republic of Korea and a grant (R01-2001-00144-0) from the Korea Science & Engineering Foundation to KSK. We have isolated a mouse Asb-4, Asb-9, and Asb-17 from mouse testis by RT-PCR using primers designed based on the sequences from the GenBank database. Interestingly, northern blot analysis showed that these genes were expressed only in testis. The expression pattern analysis by RT-PCR and northern blot for Asb-4, Asb-9, and Asb-17 in mouse indicates that these are expressed from the 4th week post birth to adult, with the highest expression in round spermatids. Both northern blot and RT-PCR analyses suggest that mASB-17 may play essential roles in testis development and spermatogenesis. KEY WORDS: Mouse testis, Asb protein, Spermotpgenesis |
