Expression of a novel Krüpple-like zinc-finger gene, ZNF382, in human heart

With the aim of identifying genes involved in human heart development and disease, we have isolated a novel KRAB-related zinc-finger gene named ZNF382 from heart cDNA library. The ZNF382 gene has a predicted 548-amino acid open reading frame, encoding a putative 64 kDa zinc-finger protein. The N-terminus of the ZNF382 coding region has a well-conserved Krüpple-associated box domain that consists of KRAB boxes A and B, whereas the C-terminus contains a Krüpple-type zinc-finger domain possessing nine C₂H₂ zinc-finger motifs in tandem arrays. The ZNF382 gene is mapped to chromosome 19q13.13. Northern blot analysis indicates that a 2.9-kb transcript specific for ZNF382 is expressed at very early embryonic stage of human (at least earlier than gestation 34 day) and widely in human embryo tissues. At the adult stage, ZNF382 expression is restricted largely to heart tissue suggesting a potential role in heart development and function.