In this study, we isolated and characterized a human cyclin A-like gene that we named cyclin A1. Cyclin A1 has 48% identity with human cyclin A and is more related to the recently cloned murine cyclin A1 (84% identity). The human cyclin A1 is specifically expressed in testis and brain among all of the normal tissues that we studied by Northern blot analysis; in addition, it is expressed in several myeloid leukemia cell lines, including ML-1, U937, NB4, KG-1, and THP1. A sensitive reverse transcription-PCR-Southern blot method also detected low-level expression of this gene in many other hematopoietic and nonhematopoietic cell lines. The expression of cyclin A1 mRNA is differentiation- and cell cycle-regulated in the ML-1 cells. We raised polyclonal antibodies against a glutathione S-transferase-cyclin A1 fusion protein produced in Escherichia coli. In immunoblot analyses, the antibodies recognized the Mr 65,000 cyclin A1 protein in ML-1 cells. The anti-cyclin A1 also immunoprecipitated the Mr 65,000 cyclin A1, along with the Mr 33,000 cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) 2 and other proteins at Mr 39,000, 42,000, 45,000, 95,000, and 110,000. In an in vitro kinase assay, the CDK2-cyclin A1 complex precipitated by anti-cyclin A1 showed kinase activities against histone H1. In a yeast two-hybrid assay, cyclin A1 can bind to CDK2 but not to CDC2, CDK4, and CDK5. We mapped the human cyclin A1 gene to chromosome 13q12.3-q13, approximately 1000 kb from the sequence-tagged site marker WI-3374.