Expression profiles of a human gene identified as a structural homologue of meiosis-specific recA-like genes.

Using the cDNA clone from mouse testis which carries the conserved sequences among meiosis-specific recA-like genes, a highly homologous cDNA clone was isolated from a cDNA library of human testis. The clone had the coding capacity of a protein consisting of 340 amino acid residues, which coincides with the average size of putative eukaryotic recA-like proteins. When expression of the corresponding gene, named HsLIM15, in various tissues was examined by reverse transcription-PCR, products of two different sizes were detected in testis: While the longer was predominantly seen in the testis, the shorter was commonly to all the tissues including the testis. Analysis of the sequences indicated that the longer product corresponded to the above cDNA clone, and the shorter one was its deletion product missing an internal 165 bp portion. The result strongly suggests that the mRNA species coding for the putative meiosis-specific RecA-like protein in human is predominantly expressed in testis possibly as an alternative splicing product of a ubiquitously expressed gene.