Ovol2, a mouse homolog of Drosophila ovo, was identified as a zinc finger transcription factor predominantly expressed in testis. However, the function of Ovol2 in postnatal male germ cell development remains enigmatic. Here, we firstly examined the mRNA and protein levels of Ovol2 in developing mouse testes by RT-qPCR and western blot and found that both mRNA and protein of Ovol2 are continually expressed in postnatal developing testes from postnatal day 0 (P0) testes to adult testes (P56) and exhibits its higher level at adult testis. Further testicular immuno-staining revealed that OVOL2 is highly expressed in the spermatogonia, spermatocytes and round spermatids. Interestingly, our conditional ovol2 knockout mouse model show that loss of ovol2 in embryonic germ cells does not affect fecundity in mice. Our data also show that Ovol1 may have compensated for the loss of Ovol2 functions in germ cells. Overall, our data indicate that ovol2 is dispensable for germ cell development and spermatogenesis.

中文翻译：

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Ovol2是锌指转录因子，对于小鼠的精子发生是必不可少的。

Ovol2，果蝇卵的小鼠同源物，被鉴定为主要在睾丸中表达的锌指转录因子。但是，Ovol2在产后雄性生殖细胞发育中的功能仍然是个谜。在这里，我们首先通过RT-qPCR和Western blot检测了发育中的小鼠睾丸中Ovol2的mRNA和蛋白水平，发现从出生后第0天（P0）到成年睾丸，Ovol2的mRNA和蛋白在出生后发育的睾丸中都持续表达。 （P56）并在成年睾丸中表现出较高的水平。进一步的睾丸免疫染色显示，OVOL2在精原细胞，精细胞和圆形精细胞中高度表达。有趣的是，我们的条件性ovol2基因敲除小鼠模型表明，胚胎生殖细胞中ovol2的丧失不会影响小鼠的繁殖力。我们的数据还表明，Ovol1可能补偿了生殖细胞中Ovol2功能的丧失。总体而言，我们的数据表明ovol2对于生殖细胞发育和精子形成是必不可少的。