Binding partners to Testis Specific Antigen, TSA70

A testis specific antigen, TSA70 was identified in the lab which was homolgous to the sperm tail outer dense fiber protein (ODF2). ODFs are disulphide stabilised during epididymal maturation and are required for sperm motility. ODF2 is reported to bind macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), a moonlighting oxidoreductase. It is not known whether such proteins exist in the female reproductive tract that ensure the disulphide stability. The aim was to identify full quorum of such redundant proteins in both male and female reproductive tract fluids. Using recombinant testis specific antigen, TSA70/ODF2, as bait we report the identification of binding partners from the epididymal fluid. Since MIF is a 12.5kDa protein, we focussed only on the low molecular weight proteins.