Cloning and sequence analysis of the murine Gli3 cDNA

The zinc finger gene Gli3 plays a role in limb and brain development. To facilitate the molecular analysis of different mouse mutations of this gene, the murine cDNA was isolated and sequenced. This 5113 bp cDNA encodes a putative protein of 1596 amino acids. Comparison of the murine and human GLI3 cDNA revealed an overall homology of 85% between the deduced amino acid sequences. More importantly, several regions of the protein, including the zinc fingers, are more highly conserved ( > 95%), suggesting that these represent functional domains in the Gli3 protein.