Cjc. Tang et al., The zinc finger domain of Tzfp binds to the tbs motif located at the upstream flanking region of the Aie1 (aurora-C) kinase gene, J BIOL CHEM, 276(22), 2001, pp. 19631-19639
Our previous studies showed that Aiel (aurora-C), is a novel. testis kinase
belonging to the aurora kinase family (1). In this report, we describe a t
estis zinc finger protein (Tzfp) that binds to the upstream flanking sequen
ce of the Aiel gene. The mouse Tzfp gene, mapped to chromosome 7 B2-B3, enc
odes a 465-amino acid transcription factor containing a conserved N-termina
l BTB/POZ domain and three C-terminal PLZF-like C2H2 zinc fingers. The zinc
finger domain of Tzfp binds to the TGTA-CAGTGT motif (Tzfp binding site, t
ermed tbs) located at the upstream flanking sequence of the Aiel gene by ge
l mobility shift, DNase I footprinting, and competition analyses. When the
C-terminal zinc fingers of Tzfp were fused to the transactivation domain of
VP16, the chimera activated transcription of a reporter construct containi
ng multiple copies of the tbs. In contrast, the same chimera did not activa
te the reporter gene when an essential nucleotide fifth C was mutated to A
at the tbs. Furthermore, we showed that the N-terminal BTB/POZ domain of TZ
FP has a repressor activity. Taken together, our results indicate that Tzfp
recognizes a sequence-specific motif (tbs) and may play a role in the regu
lation of the genes carrying the tbs.