SLX2 interacting with BLOS2 is differentially expressed during mouse oocyte meiotic maturation

Abstract

Gametogenesis is a complex biological process of producing cells for sexual reproduction. Xlr super family members containing a conserved COR1 domain play essential roles in gametogenesis. In the present study, we identified that Slx2, a novel member of Xlr super family, is specifically expressed in the meiotic oocytes, which is demonstrated by western blotting and immunohistochemistry studies. In the first meiotic prophase, SLX2 is unevenly distributed in the nuclei of oocytes, during which phase SLX2 is partly co-localized with SYCP3 in synaptonemal complex and γH2AX in the nucleus of oocytes. Interestingly, the localization of SLX2 was found to be switched into the cytoplasm of oocytes after prometaphase I during oocyte maturation. Furthermore, yeast two-hybrid and coimmunoprecipitation studies demonstrated that SLX2 interacts with BLOS2, which is a novel centrosome-associated protein, and co-localized with γ-Tubulin, which is a protein marker of chromosome segregation in meiosis. These results indicated that SLX2 might get involved in chromosomes segregation during meiosis by interaction with BLOS2. In conclusion, SLX2 might be a novel gametogenesis-related protein that could play multiple roles in regulation of meiotic processes including synaptonemal complex assembly and chromosome segregation.

X-linked lymphocyte regulated gene 5c-like (Xlr5c-like) is a novel target of progesterone action in granulosa cells of periovulatory rat ovaries

“…Nonetheless, mouse Xlr, the sequence of which exhibits a high degree of homology (> 73%) to the rat, was found to be expressed in the nucleus of lymphoid cells and suggested to play an important role in lymphocyte differentiation by acting as a transcriptional regulator (Cohen et al, 1985; Escalier et al, 1999; Siegel et al, 1987). More recently, the second member of Xlr family, SLX2 (SYCP3-like X-linked 2) was identified and found to be expressed in the nuclei of meiotic germ cells in the mouse testis and ovary (Shi et al, 2013; Zhuang et al, 2014). Like all mouse Xlr proteins, rat Xlr5c-like contains a conserved domain (referred as “Cor1 /Xlr”) that is believed to promote nuclear localization and DNA binding (Ellis et al, 2005).…”

The Chromatin Regulator Brpf1 Regulates Embryo Development and Cell Proliferation

“…Scp3 is a meiosis-specific protein critical for meiotic chromosome segregation and embryo survival (74). Some evidence suggests that Scp3l has a similar function in meiotic chromosome segregation (75,77). In addition, Scp3 is part of the Xlr family whose members also regulate the immune system (78).…”

“…9B). With a COR (meiotic chromosome core) domain sharing 49% sequence identity to that of Scp3 (74), Scp3l has been referred to as Xlr6 (X-linked lymphocyte-regulated protein 6) (75) and Slx2 (Scp3-like X-linked 2) (76,77). Scp3 is a meiosis-specific protein critical for meiotic chromosome segregation and embryo survival (74).…”

Ran‑binding protein 3 is associated with human spermatogenesis and male infertility

“…Total RNAs were extracted from testicular tissue samples (n = 6) using TRIzol (15596-026, Invitrogen, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc.) and reverse transcribed by the Transcriptor First Stand cDNA Synthesis Kit from Roche in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions (Zhuang et al, 2014(Zhuang et al, , 2016. RNA sequencing reads were mapped to the human genome using TopHat.…”