A novel human SCAN/(Cys)2(His)2 zinc-finger transcription factor ZNF323 in early human embryonic development

The C₂H₂ zinc-finger motif found in many transcription factors is thought to be important for nucleic acid binding and/or dimerization. Here, we have identified and characterized a novel zinc-finger gene named ZNF323 using degenerate primers from an early human embryo heart cDNA library. The predicted protein contains six different C₂H₂ type zinc fingers and a SCAN box. ZNF323 maps to chromosome 6p22.1-22.3. The expression levels were different during different development stages of human embryo between 15 and 23 weeks. Northern blot analysis shows that a 3.2-kb transcript specific for ZNF323 was expressed at high levels in the lung, liver, and kidney, while weakly expressed in intestine, brain, muscle, cholecyst, heart, and pancreas. In adult tissues, ZNF323 is expressed at high levels in liver and kidney, weakly in lung, pancreas, brain, placenta, muscle, and heart. Taken together, these results indicate that ZNF323 is a member of the zinc-finger transcription factor family and may be involved in the development of multiple embryonic organs.