DEVELOPMENTAL STAGE-SPECIFIC AND SPERMATOGENIC CYCLE-SPECIFIC EXPRESSION OF TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR GATA-1 IN MOUSE SERTOLI CELLS

GATA-1 is an essential factor for the transcriptional activation of er ythroid-specific genes, and is also abundantly expressed in a discrete subset of cells bordering the seminiferous epithelium in tubules of t he murine testis. In examining normal and germ-line defective mutant m ice, we show here that GATA-1 is expressed only in the Sertoli cell li neage in mouse testis. GATA-1 expression in Sertoli cells is induced c oncomitantly with the first wave of spermatogenesis, and GATA-1-positi ve cells are uniformly distributed among all tubules during prepuberta l testis development. However, the number of GATA-1-positive cells dec lines thereafter and were found only in the peripheral zone of seminif erous tubules in stages VII, VIII and IX of spermatogenesis in the adu lt mouse testis. In contrast, virtually every Sertoli cell in mutant W /W-v,jsd/jsd or cryptorchid mice (all of which lack significant number s of germ cells) expresses GATA-1, thus showing that the expression of this transcription factor is negatively controlled by the maturing ge rm cells. These observations suggest that transcription factor GATA-1 is a developmental stage- and spermatogenic cycle-specific regulator o f gene expression in Sertoli cells.