Melanoma Antigen Family A3 (MAGEA3)

MAGEA3 is a member of the MAGEA gene family. The members of this family encode proteins with 50 to 80% sequence identity to each other. The promoters and first exons of the MAGEA genes show considerable variability, suggesting that the existence of this gene family enables the same function to be expressed under different transcriptional controls. The MAGEA genes are clustered at chromosomal location Xq28. They have been implicated in some hereditary disorders, such as dyskeratosis congenita. MAGE3 cDNA was cloned from a melanoma cell cDNA library. The gene encodes a 314-amino acid polypeptide. RT-PCR revealed that MAGE2 is expressed in a variety of cancer cell lines, but among normal tissues only in testis and placenta.MAGEA3 gene comprises 3 exons, with the last exon containing the entire coding sequence.