Identification of CT46/HORMAD1, an immunogenic cancer/testis antigen encoding a putative meiosis-related protein.
Transcripts with ESTs derived exclusively or predominantly from testis, and not from other normal tissues, are likely to be products of genes with testis-restricted expression, and are thus potential cancer/testis (CT) antigen genes. A list of 371 genes with such characteristics was compiled by analyzing publicly available EST databases. RT-PCR analysis of normal and tumor tissues was performed to validate an initial selection of 20 of these genes. Several new CT and CT-like genes were identified. One of these, CT46/HORMAD1, is expressed strongly in testis and weakly in placenta; the highest level of expression in other tissues is <1% of testicular expression. The CT46/HORMAD1 gene was expressed in 31% (34/109) of the carcinomas examined, with 11% (12/109) showing expression levels >10% of the testicular level of expression. CT46/HORMAD1 is a single-copy gene on chromosome 1q21.3, encoding a putative protein of 394 aa. Conserved protein domain analysis identified a HORMA domain involved in chromatin binding. The CT46/HORMAD1 protein was found to be homologous to the prototype HORMA domain-containing protein, Hop1, a yeast meiosis-specific protein, as well as to asy1, a meiotic synaptic mutant protein in Arabidopsis thaliana.
Weill Medical College, Cornell University, New York, NY 10021, USA.
Yao-Tseng
YT
Chen
Charis A
CA
Venditti
Gregory
G
Theiler
Brian J
BJ
Stevenson
Christian
C
Iseli
Ali O
AO
Gure
C Victor
CV
Jongeneel
Lloyd J
LJ
Old
Andrew J G
AJ
Simpson
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008540:Meiosis / Q000276:immunology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013737:Testis / Q000276:immunology*
D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm