Identification of the fourth member of the mammalian endoprotease family homologous to the yeast Kex2 protease. Its testis-specific expression.

摘要: We used the polymerase chain reaction to identify a mouse testis cDNA that represented another member of growing class mammalian endoproteases involved in processing precursor proteins. This encoded 655-residue protein, designated PC4, containing bacterial subtilisin-like catalytic domain closely related those recently characterized precursor-processing endoproteases, furin, PC1/PC3, PC2, and Kex2. Within this domain, amino acid sequence PC4 was 70, 58, 55, 45% identical with yeast Kex2, respectively. Northern blot analysis indicated mRNA detectable only testes after 20th day postnatal development. Moreover, message mainly expressed round spermatids. These data suggest represents prime candidate for endoprotease testicular germ cells its gene expression is regulated during spermatogenesis.