Novel role for the intraflagellar transport protein CMG-1 in regulating the transcription of cyclin-D2, E-cadherin and integrin-alpha family genes in mouse spermatocyte-derived cells.

Capillary morphogenesis gene (CMG)-1 is a mammalian homologue of the intraflagellar transport protein IFT-74/72 of Chlamydomonas. CMG-1 is abundantly expressed in immature stages of male germ-line cells of the adult mouse testis and is required for the expression of cyclin-D2 in GC-2, a mouse premeiotic spermatocyte-derived cell line. In this study, we show that the knockdown of CMG-1 in GC-2 cells leads to down-regulation of E-cadherin, integrin-alpha1, alpha2, alpha10, and alpha11 expression. The ability of the CMG-1-knockdown GC-2 cells to adhere to type-I collagen-coated plates was consequently impaired. Inducible expression of an siRNA-resistant CMG-1 cDNA in these cells rescued the expression of E-cadherin and the integrin-alpha family genes and partially restored adherence to type-I collagen. CMG-1 participates in the transcriptional regulation of cyclin-D2 via a genomic DNA region between -250 and -216 of the mouse cyclin-D2 gene. Closely related sequences were found in the enhancer/promotor regions of E-cadherin and the four integrin-alpha family genes. Based on these data, we propose that CMG-1 serves as a transcriptional regulator of proliferation and adhesion-associated genes in early stage male germ-line cells in the testis.