Zinc Finger With KRAB And SCAN Domains Protein 4 (ZKSCAN4)

ZKSCAN4 acts as a transcriptional repressor. Further studies demonstrated that full-length ZKSCAN4 suppressed p53 transcription and that this effect was lessened by siRNA knockdown of ZKSCAN4 transcription. As expected from the known interaction of p53 and p21, ZKSCAN4 suppressed p21 transcription, which was reversed with siRNA knockdown of ZKSCAN4. The deduced 545-amino acid protein, which is evolutionarily conserved, has a calculated molecular mass of 61.6 kD. It contains a SCAN, or LER (leucine-rich region), domain, a KRAB domain, and 7 C2H2 zinc finger motifs. Northern blot analysis detected a 2.4-kb ZKSCAN4 transcript in adult heart, brain, placenta, lung, and kidney, as well as in embryonic (17-week) heart, brain, skeletal muscle, small intestine, and liver.