Murine Asb-17 expression during mouse testis development and spermatogenesis.

In this study we isolated a murine mAsb-17 from mouse testis by RT-PCR using primers designed based on the sequences from the GenBank database. The sequence analysis showed that mAsb-17 encodes a 295 amino acid polypeptide with a molecular weight of approximately 34 kDa containing two ankyrin repeats and one SOCS box. The amino acid sequence of mASB-17 showed 87.5%, 98.3% and 92.9% identity with that of human, rat and dog, respectively. Interestingly, northern blot analysis showed that mAsb-17 was expressed only in the testis. The expression analysis by RT-PCR for mAsb-17 in mouse indicates that mAsb-17 is expressed from the fourth week after 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.