Zinc Finger Protein 37 Homolog (ZFP37)

Dreyer et al. (1998) screened a human fetal cartilage-specific cDNA library with a degenerate oligonucleotide probe corresponding to a conserved stretch of 8 amino acids from the zinc finger region of the Drosophila Kruppel gene family of DNA-binding proteins. Using this strategy, they identified a novel zinc finger gene, termed ZFP37, which corresponds to a putative transcription factor containing 12 tandemly repeated zinc finger motifs and a Kruppel-associated box (KRAB) domain. The KRAB domain appears to function as a transcriptional repressor and is located in the amino terminus, while the zinc finger repeats are positioned at the carboxy terminus of ZFP37. The gene is expressed at low level as a 3.2-kb mRNA in several tissues, including fetal human cartilage. Sequence comparison demonstrated homology to the mouse Zfp37 gene.