A Novel, Testis-specific mRNA Transcript Encoding an NH2-terminal Truncated Nitric-oxide Synthase

mRNA diversity represents a major theme of neuronal nitric-oxide synthase (nNOS) gene expression in somatic cells/tissues. Given that gonads often express unique and biologically informative variants of complex genes, we determined whether unique variants of nNOS are expressed in the testis. Analysis of cDNA clones isolated from human testis identified a novel, testis-specific nNOS (TnNOS) mRNA transcript. A predicted 3294-base pair open reading frame encodes an NH2-terminal truncated protein of 1098 amino acids. Measurement of calcium-activated L-14Ccitrulline formation and nitric oxide release in CHO-K1 cells stably transfected with the TnNOS cDNA indicates that this protein is a calcium-dependent nitric-oxide synthase with catalytic activity comparable to that of full-length nNOS. TnNOS transcripts exhibit novel 5' mRNA sequences encoded by two unique exons spliced to exon 4 of the full-length nNOS. Characterization of the genomic structure indicates that exonic regions used by the novel TnNOS are expressed from intron 3 of the NOS1 gene. Although lacking canonical TATA and CAAT boxes, the 5'-flanking region of the TnNOS exon 1 contains multiple putative cis-regulatory elements including those implicated in testis-specific gene expression. The downstream promoter of the human nNOS gene, which directs testis-specific expression of a novel NH2-terminal truncated nitric-oxide synthase, represents the first reported example in the NOS gene family of transcriptional diversity producing a variant NOS protein.