Analysis of transcripts encoding novel members of the mammalian metalloprotease-like, disintegrin-like, cysteine-rich (MDC) protein family and their expression in reproductive and non-reproductive monkey tissues.

A number of sequence-related, cysteine-rich proteins containing metalloprotease-like and disintegrin-like domains (the MDC protein family), at least one of which has been shown to play a role in egg recognition during fertilization, are abundantly expressed in the mammalian male reproductive tract. In this paper we report the cloning and sequence analysis of three closely related isoforms of a novel member of this family which are expressed not only in the testis, but also in the liver, albeit at a lower level. Using a PCR-based approach we also demonstrate the presence of transcripts encoding additional, novel, disintegrin-containing proteins, in the liver and epididymis. We conclude that while some members of the MDC family are specific to the reproductive tract, suggesting functions peculiar to those tissues, others have a broader tissue distribution and may therefore play a more general role in integrin-mediated cell-cell recognition, adhesion or signalling.