ISOLATION, CLONING, AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A NOVEL RAT LUNG ZINC-FINGER GENE, RLZF-Y

Zinc-finger (ZF) proteins are widely distributed. The current study re ports isolation, cloning and characterization of a novel ZF gene, RLZF -Y. Total RNA from rat lung was reverse transcribed. The 5' and 3' end s were isolated by rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) using prime rs derived from a previously isolated partial clone. RACE products of 1.5 and 1.1 kb were cloned and sequenced. Identical overlapping sequen ce of 70 base pairs confirmed representation of the same cDNA approxim ately 2.5 kb in length. Probes derived from both 5' RACE and 3' RACE p roducts independently hybridized to a 2.5 kb mRNA from rat lung. RLZF- Y mRNA is expressed in lung, brain? heart and kidney; expression is lo w in liver. Predicted amino acid sequence analysis defined three regio ns of similarity to known C2H2 ZF proteins: a region containing seven ZF structures characteristic of the Ki Kruppel-like subfamily of ZF ge nes; a region with sequence similarity to the kruppel-associated box A (KRAB-A) domain at the amino end; an amino-terminal leucine-rich regi on (LeR) adjacent to KRAB-A. The presence of KRAB-A and the adjacent L eR implies RLZF-Y protein may function as a transcriptional repressor. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.