The Role Of Alf In Human Spermatogenesis And Male Fertility

Spermatogenesis is a continuum of cellular differentiation in which three principal phases can be discerned: spermatogonia renewal and proliferation, meiosis and spermiogenesis. It is a complex process involving cell division, differentiation and interaction between cells in the microenvironment of the seminiferous tubule. Many genes specifically or highly expressed in testis tissue are involved in the process of spermatogenesis. Cloning of spermatogenesis related genes and further functional study are very important to the elucidation of molecular mechanism involving in spermatogenesis and spermiogenesis process. It is also important to clinical diagnosis and treatment of male infertility and male molecular contraception.TFⅡ Aα/β-like factor (ALF) is a recently identified germ cell specific counterpart of the large subunit of human general transcription factor for TF II A. We conducted this study to explore functions of ALF during human spermatogenesis, and the relationship of its expression levels with male infertility, we cloned the full length of ALF using hybridization cDNA microarray from a human testicular cDNA library .The RT-PCR and Western blot analyses illustrated that ALF was highly expressed in adult testis relative to that in fetal testis. Immunohistochemistry and immunoflurescence showed that ALF is located in the spermatids of...