Castor Zinc Finger Protein 1 (CASZ1)

CASZ1 shares 97% homology with a chimpanzee protein and 85.7% identity with mouse Srg. Northern blot analysis detected abundant SRG expression in liver and placenta and weak expression in all other tissues examined. SRG was highly expressed in 15 of 18 cancer cell lines examined. Immunohistochemical staining detected SRG in a perinuclear distribution in a breast cancer cell line, but not in normal breast epithelial cells.transfection of SRG cDNA into a mouse prepro-B-cell line increased the proportion of cells able to survive IL3 deprivation or IL3 plus serum deprivation compared with control cultures. Blocking Srg expression with small interfering RNA increased apoptosis in mouse NIH3T3 cells following serum deprivation. SRG expression increased the ability of mouse melanoma cells to develop tumor colonies in mice.