Cloning And Functional Analysis Of A Novel Human Zinc Finger Protein Gene ZNF383

In mammals, zinc finger proteins constitute the largest individual family of transcription regulators. Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signal transduction pathways are among the most widespread mechanisms of eukaryotic cell regulation. Many transcription factors are important MAPK targets, and zinc finger protein is one of them. With the aim of identifying novel genes involved in human heart development and diseases, we have isolated a novel zinc finger gene from heart cDNA library. The gene is named ZNF383 that is approved by Human Genome Organization(HUGO). ZNF383 mRNA is 2270 bp, mapping to chromosome 19q13.12. The cDNA sequence of it contains an open reading frame of 1428 bp, encoding a putative protein of 475 amino acid residues with a predicted molecular mass of 54. 6 kDa. The N-terminus of the ZNF383 coding region has a well-conserved Kruppel-associated box (KRAB) domain, whereas the Oterminus contains 11 C₂H₂ zinc finger motifs in tandem arrays. Northern blot analysis indicates that ZNF383 is detected in most of the examined human adult and embryonic tissues with a higher level in skeletal muscle. In COS-7 cells, ZNF383 protein is localized to nucleus and cytoplasm. ZNF383 is a transcription repressor when fused to Gal-4 DNA-binding...