Identification, localization, and sequencing of fetal bovine VASA homolog

The vasa gene, first described in Drosophila, is purported to be important in germ cell development. Vasa is present across several invertebrate and vertebrate taxa, including frogs, fish, chickens, and humans. Vasa, a DEAD (asparagine-glutamine-alanine-asparagine) box protein shown to function as an RNA helicase in vitro, has not been investigated previously in fetal stage cattle. Total RNA was extracted from bovine fetal gonads obtained at 35-55 days, 55-80 days, and 80-120 days of gestation to amplify a 296 bp reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) product using primers for human vasa. The complete coding sequence of bovine vasa was cloned with 5' and 3' random amplification of cDNA ends polymerase chain reaction (RACE-PCR) and subsequently identified as bovine vasa homolog (BVH). Northern blot analysis revealed that among the tissues examined (gonad, liver, heart, brain, and femur), the vasa gene was expressed in the gonad. This localization, the conserved pattern of gene expression, and the gene sequence suggests that BVH plays a role in bovine germ cell development as proposed for other mammalian species.