Sal Like Protein 3 (SALL3)

The SALL3 protein contains 4 double zinc finger (DZF) domains, each of which contains sequences identical or closely related to the SAL box, a characteristic stretch of 8 amino acids within the second zinc finger motif. The third transcript is also spliced out in the orthologous mouse Sall3 (Msa1) and Xenopus Xsal1 proteins. Northern blot analysis detected strong expression of a 5-kb transcript in heart, decreasing expression in brain, pancreas, kidney, skeletal muscle, liver, and placenta, and very weak expression in lung. In situ hybridization detected expression of SALL3 at 24 weeks of gestation in several regions of the human fetal brain including neurons of the hippocampus formation and of mediodorsal and ventrolateral thalamic nuclei, Purkinje cells of the cerebellum, and a subset of neurons in the brainstem.