The bovine genome contains three differentially methylated paralogous copies of the P450c17 encoding gene (CYP17A1)

CYP17A1 encodes the key enzyme of androgen biosynthesis, P450c17. The gene is expressed in a number of steroidogenic tissues among them testis, ovary, placenta and adrenal gland. The proper analysis of CYP17A1 expression and of epigenetic parameters however, is hampered by the presence of more than one copy of the gene within the bovine genome. Therefore, as a prerequisite for future studies we characterized these copies and analyzed their promoter methylation and expression profiles in different tissues. DNA methylation levels were determined by bisulfite modification, amplification, cloning and sequencing. Transcription was analyzed by RT-PCR. From bovine genomic DNA three different CYP17A1 promoter sequences could be amplified with a sequence similarity of 94.8%, 95.6% and 98.7%. Based on these sequences we could reconstruct, by in silico analysis, the promoter regions and eight potentially coding exons of two loci, CYP17A1a and CYP17A1b, and the promoter region and truncated first exon of a third locus, CYP17A1x. By using locus-specific primers, only transcripts of CYP17A1a, but not of CYP17A1b could be detected in testis, epididymis, theca, corpus luteum, placental cotyledons, adrenal gland and preoptic brain area. Methylation analysis revealed that only the CYP17A1a promoter was hypo-methylated in the tested P450c17 active tissues, whereas both other copies showed higher levels of methylation. From these data we conclude that the bovine genome contains three paralogous copies of the CYP17A1 gene, of which two (CYP17A1b and CYP17A1x) might be silenced by epigenetic modification (promoter methylation).