Chair of Endocrinology, University of Modena, Italy.
A gene on the human Y chromosome, specifically deleted in azoospermic patients (DAZ: deleted in azoospermia), and a DAZ homologue (DAZH) on human chromosome 3, have been recently described. In the present work we report the isolation and characterization of the corresponding DAZH gene of the cynomolgus monkey (Macaca fascicularis), which we have named cynDAZLA (cynomolgus DAZ-like autosomal). Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was used to amplify the monkey DAZ homologue, and sequence analysis revealed an open reading frame of 888 bp encoding 295 amino acids. Northern blot hybridization of different tissues to a probe derived from the cynDAZLA cDNA detected a transcript of 3.5 kb that, in the male, was expressed only in the testis. Comparison of the cynDAZLA sequence to autosomal DAZ homologues from human, mouse and Drosophila showed two RNA-recognition motifs (RRM) and the presence of only one DAZ consensus repeat compared with the seven repeats found in the human DAZ gene on the Y chromosome. The homology of the cynDAZLA cDNA compared with the human DAZH and mouse dazla cDNAs is 97.97 and 87.46% respectively. The identification of the monkey cynDAZLA enables further studies regarding the putative functions of DAZH, such as onset of expression and hormonal dependence of this gene.