CLONING AND EXPRESSION ANALYSIS OF THE CDNA-ENCODING RAT ZN-ALPHA(2)-GLYCOPROTEIN

We report here the nucleotide (nt) sequence of a rat liver cDNA encodi ng Zn-alpha(2)-glycoprotein (Zn-alpha(2)-gp), a plasma protein with a high degree of sequence similarity to class-I major histocompatibility complex (MHC) antigens. The deduced amino acid (aa) sequence contains the coding information for 293 aa residues and shows 60% identity wit h the aa sequence of human Zn-alpha(2)-gp and 35% identity with that c orresponding to the extracellular domains of RT1, a rat class-I MHC an tigen. Northern blot analysis showed that rat Zn-alpha(2)-gp is expres sed in liver, but not in a wide number of tissues, including prostate, mammary gland, kidney, intestine, lung, pancreas, ovary, uterus, thyr oid, placenta, spleen, brain and heart.