Testis-specific Expression of an Intronless Gene Encoding a Human Poly(A) Polymerase

A mouse intronless gene, encoding a testis-specific poly(A) polymerase (mPAPT), was previously identified. mPAPT may play a role as a putative enzyme that is responsible for polyadenylation regulation during mouse spermatogenesis. In order to understand how PAPT genes are conserved in mammals, we isolated a human cDNA homolog encoding a human PAPT (hPAPT), which was specifically expressed in the testis. The structure of hPAPT was very similar to that of mPAPT. The about 100 residues at the C-terminal region of a nuclear poly(A) polymerase, PAP II, were missing in both PAPT proteins. An analysis of the genomic DNA showed that the hPAPT gene is an intronless gene that is similar to the mPAPT gene. Interestingly, the sequence homology between hPAPT and mPAPT was much lower than the homology between hPAP II and mPAP II. The phylogenetic analysis suggests that PAPTs arose through retrotransposition after the amphibian-amniote split during evolution.