Zinc Fingers And Homeoboxes Protein 1 (ZHX1)

ZHX1 encodes member 1 of this gene family. In addition to forming homodimers, this protein heterodimerizes with members 2 and 3 of the zinc fingers and homeoboxes family. The predicted 873-amino acid ZHX1 protein contains 2 N-terminal zinc fingers, 5 central and C-terminal homeodomains, a C-terminal acidic region, and 2 putative nuclear localization signals. Human and mouse ZHX1 share 91% amino acid sequence identity. The authors demonstrated that ZHX1 specifically interacts with NFYA both in vivo and in vitro. This interaction does not require the zinc fingers of ZHX1. Northern blot analysis detected major 4.5- and 5-kb ZHX1 transcripts in all tissues tested, namely heart, lung, liver, pancreas, kidney, brain, skeletal muscle, and placenta.