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Updated: Aug 20, 2026

Genome-wide Snapshot of Chromatin Regulators and States in Xenopus Embryos by ChIP-Seq
Published on: February 26, 2015
ZEC, a zinc finger protein with novel binding specificity and transcription regulatory activity
Guo-Yun Chen1, Hisako Muramatsu, Keiko Ichihara-Tanaka
1Department of Biochemistry, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, 65 Tsurumai-cho, Showa, Nagoya 466-8550, Japan.
Abstract:
A novel 114-kDa zinc finger protein, ZEC, has been found by cDNA cloning and characterized. ZEC was strongly expressed in the testis, liver and kidney, and also in embryonic stem cells. Epitope-tagged experiments indicated nuclear localization of ZEC. ZEC contained 18 C2H2 zinc fingers which were organized in two clusters. A ZEC binding DNA sequence, C/GA/TA/TGGTTGGTTGC, which we have designated the GT box, was identified by random oligonucleotide binding selection assay. The GT box did not contain binding sites for other previously characterized transcription factors and thus represented a potentially novel DNA target sequence. Electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) showed that both clusters of zinc fingers bound to the same DNA sequence. Site-directed mutagenesis revealed that the core sequence TTGGTT within the GT box was essential to ZEC binding, while DNA sequences outside of the core sequence enhanced this interaction. Furthermore, co-transfection assays demonstrated that ZEC could activate a reporter luciferase gene driven by this DNA sequence.
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