PHD Finger Protein 1 (PHF1)

The 'Polycomb' group (PcG) of genes in Drosophila is required for the maintenance of repression of a number of key developmental regulatory genes. PcG proteins are thought to form a multimeric complex that modifies local chromatin structure and establishes a heritable repression state at particular loci. PHF1 encodes a protein with significant sequence similarity to Drosophila Polycomblike. The encoded protein contains a zinc finger-like PHD finger which is distinct from other classes of zinc finger motifs and which shows the typical Cys4-His-Cys3 arrangement. PHD finger genes are thought to belong to a diverse group of transcriptional regulators possibly affecting eukaryotic gene expression by influencing chromatin structure. Two transcript variants have been found for this gene.