Research project Examining the transcription factors network that regulates mammalian male germ cell development
We recently discovered that a novel testis-specific transcription factor TCFL5, expressed in pachytene stage of meiosis, collaborates with the transcription factor A-MYB via a set of interlocking positive feedback and coherent feedforward loops to regulate meiotic gene expression program.
TCFL5 binds the promoters of hundreds of genes required for meiois, as well as genes that produce pachytene piRNAs. In fact, interlocking positive feedback loop establishes a central regulatory circuit. In this circuit, the A-MYB activates the expression of TCFL5, subsequently TCFL5 amplifies the transcription of A-Myb. Despite the A-MYB–TCFL5 axis regulates the transcription of critical genes required for spermatogenesis, the promoters of ~40% of meiotic genes are still not occupied by these factors, suggesting that the transcription factors network governing the orderly expression of genes during spermatogenesis is incompletely known.
Here, we are interested in examining functions of additional transcription factors regulating sperm development.