zinc finger protein ZIC 1; zinc finger protein 201; zinc finger protein of the cerebellum 1 (ZIC1, ZNF201)

Function

• transcriptional activator
• role in neurogenesis
• roles in the early stage of organogenesis of the CNS, as well as during dorsal spinal cord development & maturation of the cerebellum
• role in the spatial distribution of mossy fiber neurons within the pontine gray nucleus
• role in the regulation of mossy fiber axon pathway choice
• promotes mossy fiber migration towards ipsilaterally- located cerebellar territories
• may have a role in shear flow mechanotransduction in osteocytes
• retains nuclear GLI1 & GLI3 in the cytoplasm.
• binds to the minimal GLI-consensus sequence 5'-TGGGTGGTC-3' (putative)
• interacts (via the C2H2-type Zn+2 finger domains 3, 4 & 5) with MDFIC
• interacts with GLI1
  • interaction enhances transcription activation
• interacts with GLI2
• interacts with GLI3
  • interaction enhances transcription activation (putative)

Structure

• the C2H2-type Zn+2 finger domains 3, 4 & 5 are necessary for transcription activation (putative)
• belongs to the GLI C2H2-type Zn+2-finger protein family
• contains 5 C2H2-type Zn+2 fingers

Compartment

• nucleus. cytoplasm (putative)
• localizes in the cytoplasm in presence of MDFIC overexpression (putative)

Expression

• CNS
• high level expression is seen in the cerebellum
• detected in the nuclei of the cerebellar granule cell lineage from the progenitor cells of the external germinal layer to the postmigrated cells of the internal granular layer

Pathology

• detected in medulloblastoma (26/29 cases), but not present in all other tumors examined

More general terms

• zinc finger protein of the cerebellum (ZIC)

Database

• Entrez gene: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=gene&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=Graphics&list_uids=7545
• Kegg: http://www.genome.jp/dbget-bin/www_bget?hsa:7545
• OMIM: https://mirror.omim.org/entry/600470
• UniProt: http://www.uniprot.org/uniprot/Q15915.html