Lysozyme Like Protein 4 (LYZL4)

Lysozymes, especially C-type lysozymes, are well-recognized bacteriolytic factors widely distributed in the animal kingdom and play a mainly protective role in host defense.

LYZL4 is a member of a family of lysozyme-like genes.The deduced 146-amino acid protein shares 38% amino acid identity with LYZ and has 8 conserved cysteine residues found in all C-type lysozymes, a signal peptide sequence, a catalytic glu35 residue, but has a gly52 residue instead of asp52. Northern blot analysis of human tissues detected an approximately 1.0-kb transcript specifically in testis/epididymis. In situ hybridization analysis of testis sections detected LYZL4 expression in the epididymis, in the epithelium of the caput, with weak expression detected in the corpus and caudal epithelia.