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The low expression of Dmrt7 is associated with spermatogenic arrest in cattle-yak

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Abstract

Dmrt7 is a member of the DM domain family of genes. Dmrt7 deficiency is also a strong candidate as a cause for male cattle-yak infertility, as it is regarded as essential for male spermatogenesis, between the pachynema and diplonema stages. In our study, the coding region sequence of yak and cattle-yak Dmrt7 was cloned by molecular cloning techniques, and the sequence, conserved domains, functional sites, and secondary and tertiary structures of the Dmrt7-encoded protein were predicted and analyzed using bioinformatics methods. The coding region sequences of the Dmrt7 gene, encoding 370 amino acids, were consistent in yak and cattle-yak. The protein encoded by yak and cattle-yak Dmrt7 contains a DM domain. We detected Dmrt7 mRNA expression in testis, but not in any other tissue. Dmrt7 mRNA and protein expression was significantly higher in testis of cattle and yak than that in cattle-yak (p < 0.01). Histological analysis indicated that seminiferous tubules in male cattle-yak were highly vacuolated and contained primarily Sertoli cells and spermatogonia, while those of cattle and yak contained abundant primary spermatocytes. Male cattle-yak testis contained a significantly larger number of apoptotic cells than those in cattle and yak assessed by terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick end-labeling (TUNEL) analysis. The accumulation of SCP3-positive spermatocytes indicated the arrest of spermatogenesis at the pachynema stage in the cattle-yak. These results suggest low levels of Dmrt7 expression lead to male sterility in cattle-yak. The molecular function of Dmrt7 and the regulation of its expression warrant need to be examined in future studies.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Special Scientific Research Fund of Agriculture (201203008), Great Project of Science and Technology of Gansu Province in China (1102NKDA027) and Key Laboratory of Yak Breeding Engineering, Lanzhou Gansu Province (1106RTSA015).

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Correspondence to Ping Yan.

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Ping Yan and Lin Xiang have contributed equally to this study.

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Yan, P., Xiang, L., Guo, X. et al. The low expression of Dmrt7 is associated with spermatogenic arrest in cattle-yak. Mol Biol Rep 41, 7255–7263 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-014-3611-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-014-3611-x

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