WD Repeat Containing Domain Protein 33 (WDR33)

WDR33 encodes a member of the WD repeat protein family. This gene is highly expressed in testis and the protein is localized to the nucleus. This gene may play important roles in the mechanisms of cytodifferentiation and/or DNA recombination. Multiple alternatively spliced transcript variants encoding distinct isoforms have been found for this gene.

The human WDC146 gene had 22 exons spanning over 105 kb, and these exons were distributed in three islands intervened by two long introns of around 40 kb. A minimum promoter region was identified within a 0.5 kb 5'-upstream region of exon 1. WDC146 mRNA was most highly expressed in human testis on Northern blot analysis. In mouse tissues, the highest expression was also observed in testis.