Isolation of genes involved in carcinogenesis of spermat ogonial stem cells

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Spermatogensis is initiated by the interaction of germ cells and somatic cells in the seminiferous tubules. We attempted to identify genes which are specifically expressed in jsd/jsd mutant mouse testis containing only type A spermatogonial germ cells and Sertoli cells, but not in W/Wv test is where Sertoli cells and few germ cells are present. By taking advantage of cDNA microarrays and representational difference analysis, we isolated 20 known genes and 4 novel genes. Representatives are genes for lipocalin family members (prostaglandin D synthetase and 24p3) and tumor suppressors (protein phosphatase TD14 and Sui1). All of these jsd/jsd derived 24 genes were highly expressed not only in jsd/jsd test is but also in cryptorchid test is, indicating that the selective gene expression is not directly caused by a yet uncharacterized jsd gene product, but rather correlated with cessation of spermatogonial differentiation. In situ hybridization analyses and flow cytometric sorting followed by reverse transcriptase-PCRrevealed that these genes are expressed in both spermatogonial germ cells and somatic cells in developing gonad and adult testis. As mRNAs of these jsd/jsd-derived genes were barely detectable in W/Wv testis, we proposethat expression of a group of testicular genes are regulated by the presence of early spermatogonial germ cells.