Isolation of a cDNA encoding a novel zinc-finger protein from neuroblastoma x glioma NG108-15 cells

A subtraction cDNA library was constructed from control hybrid NG108-15 (mouse neuroblastoma x rat glioma) cells and NG108-15 cells which had been treated for 48 h with the δ-opioid agonist d-Ala²-d-Leu⁵ enkephalin (DADLE) to down-regulate the δ-opioid receptor on these cells. Among the clones isolated from this library was NGD16-4, a 2768-bp clone encoding a putative 64-kDa protein containing 14 tandemly repeated zinc fingers (Zf) with high homology to the Krüppel family of Zf proteins. NGD16-4 also contains a region homologous to the A element of the Krüppel Associated Box (KRAB) domain, a domain recently linked to transcriptional repression. Southern and Northern analyses indicate that NGD16-4 is derived from the mouse genome. Northern analysis also demonstrates that expression of NGD16-4 mRNA is much higher in several mouse neuroblastoma cell lines than in mouse brain or other tissues. Although the function of NGD16-4 is unclear, the expression pattern of NGD16-4 indicates a possible association with the processes of differentiation or transformation in the mouse.