MBD2 Interacting Zinc Finger Protein (MIZF)

MIZF interacts with methyl-CpG-binding protein-2 (MBD2), a component of the MeCP1 histone deacetylase (HDAC) complex, and plays a role in DNA methylation and transcription repression.

The deduced 517 amino acid protein has a calculated molecular mass of 59.7 kD and is predicted to contain 7 zinc finger domains similar to the C2H2 zinc finger motif, and a stretch of negatively charged amino acids. Northern blot analysis revealed ubiquitous expression of an approximately 2.3-kb transcript at highest levels in brain, heart, skeletal muscle, and kidney, and moderate levels in colon, thymus, spleen, liver, small intestine, placenta, and lung. Immunolocalization of MIZF transfected into COS-7 cells revealed staining in all areas of the nucleus except the nucleolus.