Abstract
Aquaporin 8 (AQP8) may be involved in cytoplasmic condensation and fluid formation in the vas deferens during the process of spermiogenesis. In the present study, using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) combined with DNA sequencing technology, the splice isoforms of AQP8 post-transcriptionally formed by alternative splicing in porcine testis at various developmental stages were analysed, and the differences in the amino acid sequences encoded by the splice isoforms were compared. The results showed that a total of three splice isoforms of AQP8 mRNA, including full-length mRNA, were produced via alternative splicing in porcine testes at the four developmental stages. Because the number of bases removed during splicing was not an integer multiple of 3, the amino acid sequence and protein structure of AQP8 were significantly altered after alternative splicing.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Youth Science Research Fund Program from Jilin Province (20140520176JH), the 55th Batch Face Funding Program from China Post-doctoral Science Fund (2014M551197), the Scientific Frontline and Cross Discipline Program from Jilin University's Basic Scientific Research Affair Expense (450060501490) and the Program of IRT1248. The authors thank Boxing Sun for the maintenance and care of the animals used in this research.
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Y. Gao and Q. Deng contributed equally to this article.
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Gao, Y., Deng, Q., Zhang, Y. et al. The expression of the multiple splice variants of AQP8 in porcine testes at different developmental stages. J Appl Genetics 55, 511–514 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13353-014-0219-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13353-014-0219-8