GLI Family Zinc Finger Protein 4 (GLI4)

The GLI gene was discovered and so-named by reason of its amplification in gliomas of the brain. Sequencing of GLI cDNA clones showed the presence of 5 tandem zinc fingers connected by histidine-cysteine links, which indicated that the gene belongs to the family of zinc finger genes related to Kruppel (Kr). The Drosophila gene Kr is a member of the gap class of segmentation genes; thoracic and anterior abdominal segments fail to form in Kr mutant embryos. Indeed, other genes important in neoplasia, such as NMYC, LMYC, HER2, and NRAS, have been identified partly by their homology to previously identified oncogenes. The Human Gene Mapping Workshops referred to this gene as GLI4. Kas et al. (1996) assigned GLI4 to 8q24.3 by fluorescence in situ hybridization. They demonstrated that it is situated distal to MYC (190080).