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Expression profile analysis of a new testis-specifically expressed gene C17ORF64 and its association with cell apoptosis in MCF-7 cells

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Abstract

With the increasing incidence of male infertility, identification and investigation the functions of new genes related to spermatogenesis are effective avenues to elucidate the decline of testicular function. In this study, a new gene, C17ORF64 (chromosome 17 open reading frame 64), was identified from mouse testes and its potential function was studied.RT-PCR and qRT-PCR assay showed that C17ORF64 mRNA was expressed exclusively in mouse testes and up-regulated from the 3-week old to 6-month old testes during postpartum development, which is consistent with C17ORF64 protein expression profile by western blotting analysis. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed that C17ORF64 protein was mainly localized in the cytoplasm of spermatogonia and spermatocytes, which is verified by GFP- labeled C17ORF64 gene expressed in GC-1 cells. C17ORF64 overexpression not only promoted cell apoptosis in MCF-7 cells, but also significantly decreased cell viability via MTT assay. Flow cytometric assay showed that C17ORF64 overexpression could inhibit cell cycle progression by arresting G1/S transition. Western blot and qRT-PCR analysis revealed that C17ORF64 overexpression inhibited the expression of anti-apoptotic protein bcl-2 and increased the expressions of pro-apoptotic protein caspase-3, caspase-8, caspase-9, Bax, P21 and P53. Taken together, our results confirmed C17ORF64 testis-specific expression pattern and, for the first time, demonstrated that C17ORF64 could inhibit cell viability and accelerate apoptosis in MCF-7 cells through caspase-3 regulatory pathways.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31571277) and Hunan Provincial Natural Science foundation of China (Grant No. 2020JJ4333) and the Research Foundation of Education Bureau of Hunan Province (Grant No. 19A206)

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Author notes

  1. Yanfa Dai and Jingyuan Nie contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan Institute of Science and Technology, Yueyang, 414000, Hunan, China

    Yanfa Dai, Zhongqin Luo & Dongsong Nie

  2. College of Life Science, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, 410081, Hunan, China

    Jingyuan Nie

Authors
  1. Yanfa Dai
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  2. Jingyuan Nie
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  3. Zhongqin Luo
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  4. Dongsong Nie
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Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: DN, Performed the experiments: JN and YD, Contributed reagents/materials/ analysis tools: DN and ZL, Wrote the paper: JN, Completed calculations and participated in the interpretation of the results ZL and YD.

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Correspondence to Dongsong Nie.

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All animal handling complied with the requirements of the directory of the Ethical Treatment of Experimental Animals of China.

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Dai, Y., Nie, J., Luo, Z. et al. Expression profile analysis of a new testis-specifically expressed gene C17ORF64 and its association with cell apoptosis in MCF-7 cells. Mol Biol Rep 48, 1521–1529 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-021-06191-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-021-06191-6

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