Ferritin, Heavy Polypeptide Like Protein 17 (FTHL17)

In a systematic search for genes expressed in mouse spermatogonia but not in somatic tissues, Wang et al. (2001) identified 25 genes, 19 of which were novel, that are expressed in only male germ cells. Of the 25 genes, 3 are Y-linked and 10 are X-linked, indicating that the X chromosome has a predominant role in pre-meiotic stages of mammalian spermatogenesis.

One of the novel X-linked mouse genes identified was ferritin heavy polypeptide-like-17, which encodes a protein that functions in iron metabolism and shows testis-specific expression. Wang et al. (2001) identified an orthologous, full-length human FTHL17 sequence. By radiation hybrid analysis, Wang et al. (2001) mapped the human FTHL17 gene to the X chromosome.