BOULE was first identified in Drosophila, with homologs being found in other organisms, from sea anemone to humans, DAZL is thought to have come from BOULE by a gene duplication event and was first discovered in mice, but is present in all vertebrates, and the Y-chromosomal DAZ gene was first found in infertile males, but is also present in apes and Old World monkeys.
[1] The proteins exert their action on target mRNAs by binding various 3’-UTR sequences via their conserved RNA recognition motif.
DAZL, which binds the GUU sequence of target mRNAs, interacts with poly(A)-binding proteins (PABPs) to initiate translation.
Although the mechanism of this complex is not fully understood, it is thought that due to the inhibitory role of independent PUM2, the combination of both DAZ/DAZL and PUM2 will exert similar repressive effects.
[6] In mice and humans, DAZ protein is non-uniformly distributed in the cytoplasm of pre-meiotic germ cells due to its oligomerisation with itself.
[5] The conservation of DAZ family genes among various species ranging from unicellular organisms to humans indicates their important role in fertility.
Since DAZL is located on an autosome, it has been shown to be important in germ cell development of both oocyte and spermatocytes (in spermatogenesis and oogenesis), albeit in different expression patterns for both.