Melanoma Antigen Family A4 (MAGEA4)

MAGEA4 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. MAGE4 cDNA was cloned from sarcoma cell, testis, and placenta cDNA libraries. The MAGE4a gene encodes a 317-amino acid polypeptide. RT-PCR revealed that MAGE4 is expressed in a variety of cancer cell lines, but among normal tissues only in testis and placenta.