Abstract

To identify genes that can repress the expression of growth regulatory molecules, a human fetal cDNA library was screened with a degenerate oligonucleotide that corresponds to the conserved stretch of 6 amino acids connecting successive zinc-finger regions in the Wilms' tumor suppressor/Egr-1 family of DNA-binding proteins. One clone, designated zinc-finger protein 174 (ZNF174), corresponds to a putative transcription factor with three zinc fingers and a novel finger-associated domain, designated the SCAN box. The three Cys2-His2-type zinc fingers are positioned at the carboxyl terminus, while the 65-amino acid finger-associated SCAN box is located near the amino terminus. Chromosomal localization using somatic cell hybrid analysis and fluorescent in situ hybridization mapped the gene for ZNF174 to human chromosome 16p13.3. The 2.5-kilobase transcript from this gene is expressed in a variety of human organs, but most strongly in adult testis and ovary. Fusion of the upstream regulatory region of ZNF174 to the DNA-binding domain of GAL4 revealed that the gene could confer a repression function on the heterologous DNA-binding domain. ZNF174 selectively repressed reporter activity driven by the platelet-derived growth factor-B chain and transforming growth factor-beta 1 promoters and bound to DNA in a specific manner. This member of the C2H2-type zinc-finger family is a novel transcriptional repressor.

Highlights

  • Cellular responsiveness to environmental signals is mediated, at least in part, by the induction or modulation of gene transcription

  • WT-1 can repress expression driven by the transforming growth factor TGF-␤1 1 (Dey et al, 1994), PDGF-A chain (Gashler et al, 1992), colony-stimulating factor-1 (Harrington et al, 1993) and the insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) receptor (Werner et al, 1994) promoters

  • This paper describes the isolation and characterization of a novel zinc-finger protein, zinc-finger protein 174 (ZNF174), located on human chromosome 16p13.3 with the apparent ability to repress expression driven by the promoters of a number of pathophysiologically relevant genes

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Summary

Introduction

Cellular responsiveness to environmental signals is mediated, at least in part, by the induction or modulation of gene transcription. To identify genes that can repress the expression of growth regulatory molecules, a human fetal cDNA library was screened with a degenerate oligonucleotide that corresponds to the conserved stretch of 6 amino acids connecting successive zinc-finger regions in the Wilms’ tumor suppressor/Egr-1 family of DNA-binding proteins.

Results
Conclusion

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