Testis expressed 15

Testis expressed 15 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the TEX15 gene.

The TEX15 gene displays testis-specific expression, maps to chromosome 8, contains four exons and encodes a 2789-amino acid protein. The TEX15 gene encodes a DNA damage response factor important in meiosis.

Animal studies
In mice, disruption of an ortholog of the TEX15 gene caused a drastic reduction in testis size and meiotic arrest in males. TEX15, in mice, is required for chromosome synapsis, meiotic recombination and DNA double-strand break repair. Furthermore, TEX15 regulates the loading of recombination proteins (RAD51 and DMC1) onto sites of DNA double-strand breaks, and its absence causes a failure of meiotic recombination.

Clinical significance
A mutation in the TEX15 gene was found to be associated with male infertility and meiotic maturation arrest.

Truncation variants of TEX15 are also potential breast cancer risk factors.