The evolutionarily conserved Krüppel-associated box domain defines a subfamily of eukaryotic multifingered proteins.

作者：Eric Bellefroid, Dominique A. Poncelet, P J Lecocq, Olivier Revelant, JOSEPH A. MARTIAL · 发表于：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 年份：1991 · DOI：10.1073/pnas.88.9.3608 · 被引用次数：376 · 研究领域：Genomics and Chromatin Dynamics、RNA Research and Splicing、Cancer-related gene regulation

We have previously shown that the human genome includes hundreds of genes coding for putative factors related to the Krüppel zinc-finger protein, which regulates Drosophila segmentation. We report herein that about one-third of these genes code for proteins that share a very conserved region of about 75 amino acids in their N-terminal nonfinger portion. Homologous regions are found in a number of previously described finger proteins, including mouse Zfp-1 and Xenopus Xfin. We named this region the Krüppel-associated box (KRAB). This domain has the potential to form two amphipathic alpha-helices. Southern blot analysis of "zoo" blots suggests that the Krüppel-associated box is highly conserved during evolution. Northern blot analysis shows that these genes are expressed in most adult tissues and are down-regulated during in vitro terminal differentiation of human myeloid cells.