The τCstF-64 polyadenylation protein controls genome expression in testis

PLoS One. 2012;7(10):e48373. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0048373. Epub 2012 Oct 26.

Abstract

The τCstF-64 polyadenylation protein (gene symbol Cstf2t) is a testis-expressed orthologue of CstF-64. Mice in which Cstf2t was knocked out had a phenotype that was only detected in meiotic and postmeiotic male germ cells, giving us the opportunity to examine CstF-64 function in an isolated developmental system. We performed massively parallel clonally amplified sequencing of cDNAs from testes of wild type and Cstf2t(-/-) mice. These results revealed that loss of τCstF-64 resulted in large-scale changes in patterns of genome expression. We determined that there was a significant overrepresentation of RNAs from introns and intergenic regions in testes of Cstf2t(-/-) mice, and a concomitant use of more distal polyadenylation sites. We observed this effect particularly in intronless small genes, many of which are expressed retroposons that likely co-evolved with τCstF-64. Finally, we observed overexpression of long interspersed nuclear element (LINE) sequences in Cstf2t(-/-) testes. These results suggest that τCstF-64 plays a role in 3' end determination and transcription termination for a large range of germ cell-expressed genes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cleavage Stimulation Factor / genetics
  • Cleavage Stimulation Factor / metabolism*
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Polyadenylation / physiology
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Testis / metabolism*

Substances

  • Cleavage Stimulation Factor
  • Cstf2t protein, mouse