Schulz T C, Hopwood B, Rathjen P D, Wells J R
Department of Biochemistry, University of Adelaide, Australia.
Biochem J. 1995 Oct 1;311 ( Pt 1)(Pt 1):219-24. doi: 10.1042/bj3110219.
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.
锌指是一种蛋白质结构域，它赋予多种功能重要的蛋白质特定的核酸结合活性。在本文中，我们报告了一个新的小鼠锌指基因mZ13的分子克隆和特性分析。对mZ13 cDNA的分析表明，该基因表达一种由2.7 kb转录本编码的794个氨基酸的蛋白质。该蛋白质具有13个锌指的不寻常排列，形成一个由12个串联锌指组成的“手”以及靠近C末端的单个孤立锌指。这种结构组织与可能的鸡同源物cZ13保守。mZ13在N末端还包含一个额外的结构域，该结构域先前已被证明通过蛋白质-蛋白质相互作用参与锌指转录因子DNA结合的调控。在多种小鼠胚胎和成年组织中检测到mZ13的表达。mZ13的结构组织及其表达谱表明它可能作为一种管家DNA结合蛋白发挥作用，调节特定基因的表达。
