HGNC Approved Gene Symbol: ZNF93
Cytogenetic location: 19p12 Genomic coordinates (GRCh38) : 19:19,900,946-19,935,575 (from NCBI)
The ZNF93 gene encodes a zinc finger protein of the KRAB (Kruppel-associated box) subfamily (Bellefroid et al., 1993). See ZNF91 (603971) for general information on ZNFs.
By screening a cDNA library derived from a human undifferentiated embryonal carcinoma cell line with the coding sequence of the ZNF85 (603899) N-terminal nonfinger region, which spans the KRAB domain, Bellefroid et al. (1991) isolated cDNAs encoding 11 distinct KRAB zinc finger proteins, including ZNF93, which they called HTF34.
Bellefroid et al. (1993) reported the characterization of a subgroup of KRAB zinc finger proteins, named the ZNF91 family, of which ZNF93 is a member. These proteins contain a conserved linker region, called the ZNF91-related spacer region, between their N-terminal KRAB domain and their first finger unit. The authors found that members of the ZNF91 family are widely expressed in human tissues, with the highest expression in T-lymphoid cells.
Jacobs et al. (2014) reported that ZNF91 (603971) and ZNF93, 2 primate-specific KRAB zinc finger genes, evolved rapidly to repress the 2 distinct retrotransposon families SINE-VNTR-Alu (SVA) and long interspersed nuclear element-1 (LINE1) shortly after they began to spread in the human ancestral genome. ZNF91 underwent a series of structural changes 8 to 12 million years ago that enabled it to repress SVA elements. ZNF93 evolved earlier to repress the primate L1 lineage until about 12.5 million years ago, when the L1PA3 subfamily of retrotransposons escaped ZNF93's restriction through the removal of the ZNF93 binding site.
By somatic cell hybrid analysis and FISH, Bellefroid et al. (1993) mapped the ZNF93 gene to chromosome 19p13.1-p12.
Bellefroid, E. J., Marine, J. C., Ried, T., Lecocq, P. J., Riviere, M., Amemiya, C., Poncelet, D. A., Coulie, P. G., de Jong, P., Szpirer, C., Ward, D. C., Martial, J. A. Clustered organization of homologous KRAB zinc-finger genes with enhanced expression in human T lymphoid cells. EMBO J. 12: 1363-1374, 1993. [PubMed: 8467795] [Full Text: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/resolve/openurl?genre=article&sid=nlm:pubmed&issn=0261-4189&date=1993&volume=12&issue=4&spage=1363]
Bellefroid, E. J., Poncelet, D. A., Lecocq, P. J., Revelant, O., Martial, J. A. The evolutionarily conserved Kruppel-associated box domain defines a subfamily of eukaryotic multifingered proteins. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 88: 3608-3612, 1991. [PubMed: 2023909] [Full Text: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.88.9.3608]
Jacobs, F. M. J., Greenberg, D., Nguyen, N., Haeussler, M., Ewing, A. D., Katzman, S., Paten, B., Salama, S. R., Haussler, D. An evolutionary arms race between KRAB zinc-finger genes ZNF91/93 and SVA/L1 retrotransposons. Nature 516: 242-245, 2014. [PubMed: 25274305] [Full Text: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13760]