Bioinformatic characterization of the Transmembrane protein95 gene (TMEM95) in Murrah buffalo (Bubalus bubalis)

Abstract

Idiopathic male subfertility is often a neglected phenotype with respect to male fertility in bovines. The gene TMEM95 plays a crucial role in idiopathic male subfertility in cattle. Using the DNA sequence information from cattle TMEM95 gene, we characterized the gene in Murrah buffalo. A total of 2.6 kb of a fragment orthologous to cattle was sequenced from Murrah buffalo and Gir cattle. A 2 bp deletion is present in Murrah buffalo, causing missense mutations in three isoforms that are present in cattle. The functional effects of various non-synonymous mutations were predicted using the SNAP2 program, and showed that the non-synonymous SNPs could affect the protein function. Functional motif annotation revealed the presence of a Casein kinase II phosphorylation site that plays an important role in sperm morphology, Leucine zipper pattern, N-myristoylation site, protein kinase C phosphorylation site, CHRD domain profile, N-glycosylation site and HIT zinc finger motifs in cattle. The HIT ZF motif is absent in all of the functional isoforms in buffalo. The results together suggest that the subfertility gene TMEM95 in cattle and buffalo must have evolved with different functions but plays a role in male fertility as in other mammals.