Cloning and sequence analysis of multiple splice variants of lactate dehydrogenase C in yak testes

Lactate dehydrogenase C (LDH-C) has been reported to play a role in the energy metabolism of mammal spermatozoa. However, the functions and expression patterns of LDH-C still remain unclear. In order to elucidate the functions and expression patterns of LDH-C, we cloned the cDNA of yak LDH-C. Total RNA was extracted from yak testes and reverse transcribed and amplified by PCR. The full length open reading frame (ORF) of LDH-C and its five splice variants were obtained. The full length ORF contained 999 bp encoding a 332-amino-acid protein that showed 100% identity with bovine LDH-C. Compared with the full length ORF of LDH-C, the five variants used the same start codon as the full length ORF and encoded 5 putative proteins. In detail, variants 1 (missing the coding sequence of exon 6 and 7) and 2 (missing the coding sequence of exon 7) bear the entire nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide (NAD) binding domain and an active site. Variants 3 (missing the first 42 nuleotides of exon 4) and 4 (missing the coding sequences of exons 5, 6 and 7) lack part of the NAD binding domain but contained the entire active site. Variant 5 (missing the coding sequence of exons 4 and 7) lacks a large part of the NAD binding domain and the entire active site. Native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was performed to determine if the splice variants can be translated into proteins. However, native PAGE detected no specific bands from yak testes and bovine spermatozoa. This study suggests the alternative splicing of LDH-C is ubiquitous in bovine testes and might be involved in regulation of LDH-C expression. The findings also help to elucidate the functions of LDH-C.