Identification and characterization of yak (Bos grunniens) b-Boule gene and its alternative splice variants

• Cloned and characterized the full length coding sequence of the yak b-Boule
• Identified two alternative splice variants of the yak b-Boule
• Analyzed the expressions of yak b-Boule and its alternative splice variants

Boule is responsible for meiotic arrest of sperms and male sterility during mammalian spermatogenesis. In the present study, we first identified yak b-Boule gene and its two alternative splice variants. The full length coding region of yak b-Boule is 888 bp and encodes a 295-amino acid protein with a typical RNA-recognition motif (RRM) and a Deleted in Azoospermia (DAZ) repetitive sequence motif. Two alternative splice variants of yak b-Boule were generated following the consensus “GT-AG” rule and named b-Boule1 (36 bp deletion in exon 3) and b-Boule2 (deletion of integral exon 7), respectively. In male yak, b-Boule, b-Boule1 and b-Boule2 were found to be exclusively expressed in the testes at a ratio of 81:0.1:1. Intriguingly, the mRNA expression levels of b-Boule and b-Boule1 in yak testis were significantly higher than those in cattle–yak, although no significant difference was observed for b-Boule2 expression between the yak and cattle–yak. These results suggest that b-Boule gene, which is partially regulated by alternative splicing, may be involved in the process of yak spermatogenesis.