Isolation and Characterization of Mouse Testis Specific Serine/Threonine Kinase 5 Possessing Four Alternatively Spliced Variants

Phosphorylation on serine/threonine or tyrosine residues of target proteins is an essential and significant regulatory mechanism in signal transduction during many cellular and life processes, including spermatogenesis, oogenesis and fertilization. In the present work, we reported the isolation and characterization of mouse testis-specific serine/threonine kinase 5 (Tssk5), which contains four alternatively spliced variants including, Tssk5, Tssk5, Tssk5 and Tssk5. Moreover, the locus of Tssk5 is on chromosome 14qC3 and the four variants had a similar high expression in the testis and the heart; however, had a low expression in other tissues, except for Tssk5 which also had comparably high expression in the spleen. Each variant of Tssk5 expression began in the testis 16 days after birth. Aside from TSSK5, the other isoforms have an insertion of ten amino acid residues (RLTPSLSAAG) in region VIb (HRD domain) (His-Arg-Asp). Moreover, only TSSK5 exhibited kinase activity and consistently, a further Luciferase Reporter Assay demonstrated that TSSK5, TSSK5 and TSSK5 cannot be stimulated at the CREB/CRE responsive pathway in comparison to TSSK5. These findings suggest that TSSK5, TSSK5, TSSK5 may be pseudokinases due to the insertion, which may damage the structure responsible for active kinase activity. Pull-down assay experiments indicated that TSSK5, TSSK5 and TSSK5 can directly interact with TSSK5. In summary, these four isoforms with similar expression patterns may be involved in spermatogenesis through a coordinative way in testis.