Abstract Beginning from a mouse EST (GenBank accession No. BE644537) which was significantly up-regulated in cryptorchidism and represented a novel gene, we cloned a new gene (GenBank accession No. AY138810) which is related to apoptosis in human spermatogenic cells by means of GeneScan program and PCR technology. The gene whose full cDNA length is 1875 bp containing 8 exons and 7 introns is located in human chromosome 11q13.3. Its protein containing 316 amino acid residues is a new member of HSP40 protein family because the sequence contains the highly conserved J domain which is present in all DnaJ-like proteins and is considered to have a critical role in DnaJ-DnaK protein-protein interactions. TSARG6 protein displays a 45% identity in a 348-amino acid overlap with DJB5_HUMAN protein. The result of RT-PCR and Northern blot analysis showed that TSARG6 is specifically expressed in adult testis and the transcript is 1.8 kb. Based upon all these observations, it is considered that we cloned a new gene which probably inhibited human testis spermatogenesis apoptosis.

Key words gene cloning; PCR; GeneScan; cryptorchid testis; heat shock protein (HSP); apoptosis

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Received: September 22, 2003 Accepted: November 22, 2003
This work was supported by a grant from the Major State Basic Research Development of China (No. G1999055901)
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