Study On Novel Human Zinc Finger Protein Genes

Transcription factors play an essential role in controlling gene expression during cardiac and vascular pathogenesis. Identification of regulatory genes in the cardiovascular system is a necessary toward an understanding of the pathogenesis of congenital heart disease (CHD) and acquired cardiovascular diseases. The Cys2/His2 type zinc finger genes are the single largest class of transcription factors in the human genome and many numbers of these krtlpple-like zinc finger genes have been found to be involved in cardiac development or cardiovascular diseases. In this study, we have identified four novel human krlipple-like zinc finger genes named ZNF325, ZNF359, ZFP28 and ZNF323. The complete human ZNF325 cDNA sequence is 2697bp and contains a 1389-bp open reading frame (ORF) that encodes a 462 amino acid protein with 15 zinc finger C2H2 motifs. The complete human ZNF359 cDNA sequence is 3270bp and contains a 1932-bp open read ing frame (ORF) that encodes a 643 amino acid protein with an N-terminal KRAB domain and 16 C-terminus zinc finger C2H2 motifs. The ZFP28 cDNA sequence is 4104bp and contains a 2076-bp open reading frame (ORF) that encodes an 868 amino acid protein with an N-terminal signal peptide, two KRAB domains and 14 C-terminal C2H2 zinc finger motifs. The complete human ZNF323 cDNA sequence is 3179bp and contains a 1221-bp open reading frame (ORF) that encodes a 407 amino acid protein with a SCAN domain and 6 zinc finger C2I12 motifs. Northern blot analyses showed a strong expressionof ZNF325, ZNF359, ZFP28 and ZNF323 in various tissues of adult human. A further analysis using human embryonic tissues (16 to 24 weeks) showed a development-specific expression pattern in heart, skeletal muscle, liver, lung, kidney and brain suggesting a role for these genes in embryonic development.