Snail Homolog 1 (SNAI1)

SNAI1 is structurally similar to the Drosophila snail protein, and is also thought to be critical for mesoderm formation in the developing embryo. At least two variants of a similar processed pseudogene have been found on chromosome 2.A single transcript of 1.9 kb was detected in several human fetal tissues, with highest expression in kidney. The SNAI1 open reading frame encodes a deduced 264-amino acid protein containing 4 zinc finger motifs that show 87.1% identity to mouse Snai1.SNAI1 expression is higher in normal breast epithelial cell and stromal fibroblast cell lines than in breast cancer cell lines. They showed that SNAI1 interacts with a regulatory region near promoter I.3 of the human aromatase gene, resulting in repression of promoter I.3 and in downregulation of aromatase expression in normal breast tissue.