Isolation and characterization of the murine zinc finger coding gene, ZT2: Expression in normal and transformed myogenic cells

In the context of a project aimed at the identification of zinc finger proteins involved in skeletal muscle histogenesis and differentiation, we isolated a murine gene, named ZT2. The 2.44 kb partial cDNA clone corresponds to the 3' region of the gene, and contains a 0.54 kb open reading frame encoding four C₂H₂-like zinc finger domains, organized in tandem. This cDNA hybridizes with multiple transcripts (2, 4.5 and 7 kb), whose expression levels vary in different tissues and at different developmental stages in the same tissue. At least in skeletal muscle we observed differences in the polyadenylation state of the transcripts at different stages of development. Moreover, ZT2 expression is correlated with cell proliferation and transformation. Sequence analysis and genetic mapping indicate that ZT2 is the homologue of ZNF125, one of the linked zinc finger encoding genes localized on human Chr 11q23. In humans, a high frequency of tumor-associated translocations is found in this chromosome region. As expected, ZT2 maps to the corresponding region on chromosome 9 in the mouse.