title: An unusual arrangement of 13 zinc fingers in the vertebrate gene Z13.
abstract: The zinc finger is a protein domain that imparts specific nucleic acid-binding activity on a wide range of functionally important proteins. In this paper we report the molecular cloning and characterization of a novel murine zinc-finger gene, mZ13. Analysis of mZ13 cDNAs revealed that the gene expresses a 794-amino-acid protein encoded by a 2.7 kb transcript. The protein has an unusual arrangement of 13 zinc fingers into a 'hand' of 12 tandem fingers and a single isolated finger near the C-terminus. This structural organization is conserved with the probable chicken homologue, cZ13. mZ13 also contained an additional domain at the N-terminus which has previously been implicated in the regulation of zinc-finger transcription factor DNA-binding, via protein-protein interactions. mZ13 expression was detected in a wide range of murine embryonic and adult tissues. The structural organization of mZ13 and its expression profile suggest that it may function as a housekeeping DNA-binding protein that regulates the expression of specific genes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, University of Adelaide, Australia.
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Schulz
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hopwood
authors.forename: P D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Rathjen
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Wells
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002645:Chickens; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000737:chemistry; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008808:Mice, Inbred CBA; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012194:RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D017385:Sequence Homology; D016335:Zinc Fingers
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; C484314:Zfp100 protein, mouse; D012194:RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase