The Mouse Zic Gene Family
HOMOLOGUES OF THE DROSOPHILA PAIR-RULE GENE odd-paired(*)
- Jun Aruga(1)(§),
- Takeharu Nagai(1),
- Tsutomu Tokuyama(1),
- Yoshihide Hayashizaki(2),
- Yasushi Okazaki(2),
- Verne M. Chapman(3) and
- Katsuhiko Mikoshiba(1)(4)
- From the (1)Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory, Tsukuba Life Science Center, Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan
- (2)Genome Science Laboratory, Tsukuba Life Science Center, Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN) Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan, the
- (3)Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, New York 14263, and the
- (4)Department of Molecular Neurobiology, Institute of Medical Science, University of Tokyo, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108, Japan
- § To whom correspondence should be addressed: Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory, Tsukuba Life Science Center, Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), 3-1-1 Koyadai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305, Japan. Tel.: 81-298-36-9170; Fax: 81-298-36-9040.
Abstract
The mouse Zic gene, which encodes a zinc finger protein, is expressed in the developing or matured central nervous system in a highly restricted manner. We identified two novel Zic-related genes (Zic2, Zic3) through genomic and cDNA cloning. Both genes are highly similar to Zic(1), especially in their zinc finger motif. A comparison of genomic organization among the three Zic genes showed that they share common exon-intron boundaries and belong to the same gene family. Zic1, Zic2, and Zic3 were determined to mouse chromosome 9, 14, and X using an interspecific backcross panel. Northern blotting and ribonuclease protection showed that Zic2 and Zic3 are expressed in a restricted manner in the cerebellum at the adult stage. However, the temporal profile of the mRNA expression in the developing cerebella differ in the three Zic genes. Furthermore, we found that the Drosophila pair-rule gene, odd-paired is highly homologous to the Zic gene family. The similarity was not only the zinc finger motif, but also the exon-intron boundary was the same as those of mouse Zic gene family. These findings suggest that the Zic gene family and Drosophila odd-paired are derived from a common ancestral gene.
Footnotes
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↵* This work was supported by grants from the Science and Technology Agency of Japanese government, Japanese Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (to J. A. and K. M.), Grant-in-Aid 07279247 for Scientific Research on Priority Areas on Functional Development Neuronal Circuits, the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Japan (to J. A.), Special Coordination Funds for Promoting Science and Technology (to J. A.), a grant from the Japanese Brain Science Foundation (to J. A.), and United States Public Health Service Grant GM33160 (to V. M. C.). The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore by hereby marked “advertisement” in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
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↵1 The abbreviations used are:
- CNS
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central nervous system
- PCR
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polymerase chain reaction.
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↵2T. Saito and K. Mikoshiba, unpublished results.
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↵3J. Aruga and K. Mikoshiba, unpublished results.
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↵4J. Aruga, N. Yokota, K. Nakata, N. Fujimoto, and K. Mikoshiba, unpublished results.
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- Received July 25, 1995.
- Revision received October 31, 1995.
- © 1996 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc.
