ISOLATION, CHARACTERIZATION, AND ORGAN-SPECIFIC EXPRESSION OF 2 NOVELHUMAN ZINC-FINGER GENES RELATED TO THE DROSOPHILA GENE SPALT

The region-specific homeotic gene spalt (sal) of Drosophila specifies head and tail as opposed to trunk segments. During later stages of ont ogenesis, sal is also expressed and required in a small number of tiss ues and organs in the developing embryo. sal encodes a zinc finger pro tein of unusual but characteristic structure. We made use of these uni que features to isolate sal-like genes from humans, Here we report the isolation and molecular characterization of two sal-like transcriptio n units, termed Hsal1 and Hsal2, which are located on chromosomes 16q1 2.1 and 14q11.1-q12.1, respectively. Their transcripts are expressed i n a limited number of adult organs, including the brain. While Hsal2 i s evenly expressed in different brain areas, Hsal1 transcripts prefere ntially accumulate in the corpus callosum and the substantia nigra. In the fetal brain, transcripts of both genes were detected in neurons, The arrangement of sal-like zinc finger domains and their high degree of sequence similarity suggest a novel and conserved subfamily of huma n zinc finger transcription factors that is closely related to the Dro sophila gene product encoded by the gene sal. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.