Identification and characterization of cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor 3 in mouse testis

Abstract

Spermatogenesis is a tightly organized process that occurs mitotic, meiotic, and post-meiotic phases. The unique mechanisms responsible for this sophisticated developmental process suggest the presence of an intrinsic genetic program composed of germ cell-specific genes. Thus, identification of germ cell-specific genes is important to understand spermatogenesis. One of the effective tools to identify these genes is microarray analysis. In this study, twenty-five genes were selected using the microarray data. Of these genes, Cdkn3, a germ cell-specific gene, appears to be regulated in a stage-dependent manner. Although CDKN3 protein is known to inhibit cell growth and proliferation in various cancer types, our data showed that translation of CDKN3 was regulated in the mouse testis, suggesting that the function of CDKN3 in spermatogenesis is related to intricate gene expression mechanism. Collectively, this study will establish a basis for further investigation of the functional characterization of Cdkn3 related to spermatogenesis.