CLONING OF THE COMPLETE CDNA OF ZNF191, A NOVEL HUMAN ZINC-FINGER PROTEIN GENE

To clone new members of a zinc finger protein gene family, a pair of p rimers was synthesized based on the conserved sequence of Kruppel-type zinc finger genes, and used to perform PCR amplification with human g enomic DNA as a template. The sequence analysis of the PCR product ide ntified a novel zinc finger gene fragment, HGZA-1. Using HGZA-1 as a p robe to screen cDNA library the full-length cDNA of a novel human zinc finger gene ZNF191 has been cloned. The computer analysis of the cDNA sequence reveals an open reading frame coding potentially for a zinc finger protein with 4 tandemly repeated C2H2 zinc finger motifs at C-t erminus. This putative protein consists of 368 as and has a molecular weight of 43 ku approximately. Hybridization of human/rodent somatic c ell hybrid panel and fluorescence in situ hybridization mapped this ge ne to chromosome 18q12.1. Northern blot analysis revealed that this ge ne is expressed ubiquitously, while its expression level in liver is m uch higher than in other tissues.