Assignment of the human zinc finger gene, ZNF288, to chromosome 3 band q13.2 by radiation hybrid mapping and fluorescence in situ hybridisation.

Zinc finger genes comprise a large family of genes, which have been associated with normal and abnormal development, including development of extremities, regulation of neuronal gene expression (Theil et al., 1999), motor neuron development and migration (Baum et al., 1999), and abnormal brain development (Karlstrom et al., 1999). Zinc finger genes have also been associated with cancer (Stein et al., 1999) and systemic lupus erythematosus (Tsao et al., 1999). The human zinc finger gene, ZNF288, has high homology to a novel murine POZ/zinc finger transcription factor encoding gene, Oda-8, which is expressed in developing neurons during mouse brain development (Kjaerulf et al., unpublished, accession number AL050276). Although the function of ZNF288 remains to be elucidated, it is tempting to speculate that ZNF288 codes for a protein that may be involved in brain development. Here we report the assignment of the human ZNF288 gene to human chromosome 3q13.2 by radiation hybrid mapping and fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH). Materials and methods