Chromodomain Helicase DNA Binding Protein 1 (CHD1)

The murine gene 'chromodomain helicase DNA-binding protein-1' (Chd1) was isolated by Delmas et al. in a search for proteins that bind a DNA promoter element. The presence of chromo domains and an SNF2-related helicase/ATPase domain led to speculation that this gene regulates chromatin structure or gene transcription. Woodage et al.cloned and characterized 3 novel human genes related to the mouse Chd1 gene, referred to as CHD1, CHD2, and CHD3 . Human CHD1 encodes a 1,709-amino acid predicted protein that shares 95.5% identity with the 1,711-amino acid mouse Chd1 polypeptide. Examination of sequence databases revealed several more related genes, most of which were not known to be similar to mouse Chd1, yielding a total of 12 highly conserved CHD genes from organisms as diverse as yeast and mammals.