Zinc Finger Protein 45 (ZNF45)

Zinc finger genes represent a large family of more than 500 genes in the human genome that are involved in transcription regulation. A subgroup of these genes contains a conserved motif, the KRAB domain, at the N-terminal region. The KRAB domain possesses a potent transcriptional repression activity. The predicted protein product contains 682 amino acids.

ZNF45 contains KRAB A and B domains, a spacer region, and 17 tandemly arrayed zinc fingers of which 2 are degenerate. Northern blot analysis of adult human tissues detected a 3.5-kb ZNF45 transcript in many tissues including spleen, thymus, blood leukocytes, pancreas, small intestine, colon, heart, brain, skeletal muscle, testis, prostate, ovary, and placenta.Exon 2 codes exclusively for the KRAB-A element of 42 amino acids, and exon 4 contains 19 zinc finger repeats.