THE MOUSE T-COMPLEX GENE, TCP-11, IS UNDER TRANSLATIONAL CONTROL

The mouse t-complex is known to harbour genes which affect male fertil ity. Tcp-11 is a t-complex gene which is only expressed in male germ c ells and from its position is a candidate for a distorter, one of the two types of genetic element involved in transmission ratio distortion . Antibodies raised to TCP-11 protein made in E. Coli were used on thi n sections of testis and shown to recognise late spermatids. On Wester n blots the antibodies bound to a 68-kD protein present in protein ext racts from testis. No specific signal could be detected using the anti body on protein extracts from other mouse tissues. Following gentle ly sis of the germ cells and fractionation on sucrose gradients, all the material recognised by the anti-Tcp-11 antibody was found to be solubl e and unassociated with any membrane fraction or organelle. A comparis on of the time course of expression of the Tcp-11 mRNA and the TCP-11 protein revealed that expression of this gene is under translational c ontrol.