A NOVEL MEMBER OF THE DYNAMIN FAMILY OF GTP-BINDING PROTEINS IS EXPRESSED SPECIFICALLY IN THE TESTIS

Dynamin is a member of a new GTPase family, which includes the mouse Mx protein, the yeast VPS1 and the Drosophila shibire gene product. A high homology with the shibire product suggests a role for dynamin in the endocytotic process, but it is expressed only in mature neurons. We identified two additional dynamin-like proteins in rats, by using the polymerase chain reaction with degenerate primers corresponding to the GTP-binding areas conserved between dynamin and VPS1. The full coding sequence of one of them, dynamin-2, revealed that it has 848 amino acids and has great similarity with brain dynamin and the shibire product. Northern blot analysis and in situ hybridization revealed its expression to be specific to the seminiferous tubules in the testis. Dynamin-2 (testis type dynamin) was expressed in germ-cell-depleted testis as well, indicating its expression in Sertoli cells. Our data imply that a number of dynamin family proteins, which are products of distinct genes, may play different roles specific to each cell type in the same rat.