Abstract
P6 is one of the major basic proteins of bovine seminal plasma. Using cell-free translation of poly(A)+RNA from bovine seminal vesicle tissue and monospecific anti-P6-IgGs, we show that P6 is a secretory product of the seminal vesicles. Immunohistochemical experiments supported this finding. Immunoscreening of a λgt11 cDNA library derived from seminal vesicle poly(A)+RNA furnished a number of positive cDNA clones, from which clone pH42 was characterized by sequencing. The partial amino acid sequence of a CNBr-fragment of P6 permitted identification of the reading frame of clone pH42 encoding the precursor protein of P6. The P6 precursor contains a signal peptide of 23 amino acids followed by the mature P6 sequence of 76 amino acid residues. The cDNA sequence of pH42 was 80% homologous with that of the human monocyte-chemo-attractant protein-1 (hMCP-1). The respective amino acid sequences for the precursor molecules are 72% identical. Northern analysis of seminal vesicle poly(A)+RNA using pH42 as probe identified a 0.9-kb P6 mRNA. Stimulation of P6 mRNA expression by phytohemagglutinin in bovine peripheral mononuclear leukocytes suggests that P6 is identical to bovine MCP-1.