Zinc finger protein 229 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ZNF229 gene.[1] The ZNF229 gene is predicted to be active in the nucleus and involved in regulating transcription as it can bind to DNA, either inhibiting or promoting transcription.[2] [3]
This gene is located on chromosome 19 (19p13.31) spanning 22,219 nucleotides on the minus strand of DNA.
The longest isoform (transcript variant 1) of the ZNF229 gene has an mRNA transcript length of 4,956 base pairs which encode 7 exons. There is one other isoform, transcription variant 2, which differs in the 5’ UTR region and differs at the end of exon 5. This isoform has 4,832 base pairs and is slightly shorter than isoform 1.
Transcription variant 1 of ZNF229 encodes a protein that is 825 amino acids in length. Isoform 2 of ZNF229 encodes a protein made up of 819 amino acids that does not include the last 6 amino acids of exon 5 that are observed in isoform 1. The molecular weight is 93 kDa. The zinc finger protein 229 has a Kruppel-associated box domain (KRAB) at the N-terminus and multiple C2H2 arms at the C-terminus. The KRAB domain is important for transcription repression.[4] [5] In the C2H2 zinc finger domains, the amino acid sequence has two cysteines at the beginning and two histidines at the end. These specific amino acids allow the protein to bind to the metal zinc ion. This bond with zinc stabilizes the proteins secondary structures as they form an alpha helix and two beta sheets. The alpha helix then binds to DNA in the major groove, allowing the protein to regulate transcription.[6] This protein is expressed in the brain, ovaries, and thyroid.
The Zinc Finger Protein family is large and the human ZNF229 protein has many paralogs. These 5 paralogs range in identity from 46-52%.
| Paralogs | Identity | Similarity | Accession # | Sequence length (aa) | Chromosome location | |
| ZNF229 | 100% | 100% | NP_055333.3 | 845 | 19q13.31 (44426254..44448578) | |
| ZNF658 | 52% | 68% | NP_001304845.1 | 1059 | 9q21.11 | |
| ZNF208 | 49% | 64% | KAI2590044.1 | 1167 | 19p12 | |
| ZNF227 | 49% | 62% | NP_001276102.1 | 771 | 19q13.31 (44207547..44237268) | |
| ZNF836 | 44% | 58% | NP_001096127.1 | 936 | 19q13.41 | |
| ZNF112 | 46% | 57% | NP_001335210.1 | 930 | 19q13.31 (44326553..44367217) |
There are orthologs of the ZNF229 human gene found in nearly all life forms. Some ortholog groups include mammals (identity of 45%), reptiles (42-46%), birds (52-56%), fish (47-54%), invertebrates (39-54%), fungi (46-55%), plants (31-39%), and bacteria (34-51%). ZNF229 did not have any significant orthologs in archaea. This data was collected using NCBI Protein Blast[7] and Time Tree.[8]