Molecular cloning and characteristics of a novel zinc finger protein and its splice variant whose transcripts are expressed during spermatogenesis.

Testicular zinc finger protein (TZF) has a zinc finger motif of the Cys2-His2 type and its transcript is expressed predominantly in mouse spermatogenic cells. Using the fragment of TZF as a probe, we isolated the alternative splice variant form (TZF-L) from mouse testis cDNA library. Analysis of the open reading frame of each cDNA indicated that TZF and TZF-L were polypeptides of 942 and 2025 amino acid residues, respectively, and the N-terminal 902 amino acids of TZF-L were identical to those of TZF. The C-terminal region of TZF-L had more a zinc finger motif of the Cys2-His2 type and poly-Glu and poly-Pro regions. The mouse TZF/TZF-L gene spanned >20 kb and consisted of 11 exons. RT-PCR analysis of the expression level of mRNAs for mouse TZF and TZF-L showed that both transcripts are highly expressed in testis and moderately in kidney and ovary. Elevated expression of both transcripts during testicular development in mice was restricted to spermatocytes at the pachytene stage of meiotic prophase. Fusion proteins with GFP also demonstrated the nuclear localization of TZF and TZF-L. These experiments suggest that TZF and TZF-L may act to control the gene activity during spermatogenesis.