Cloning and sequence analysis of cDNA encoding the bovine testis-derived male-enhanced antigen (Mea)

A full-length cDNA encoding the bovine male enhanced antigen (Mea) has been cloned from a bovine testicular cDNA library and sequenced. The primary structure of the bovine Mea peptide deduced from this nucleotide sequence has 174 amino acid residues and is highly homologous to human (95.9%, 165/172) and mouse (92.5%, 161/174) Mea gene products. It is located on an autosome, and is expressed highly in the testes.