Zinc And Ring Finger Protein 4 (ZNRF4)

Fujii et al. (1999) cloned mouse Znrf4, which they called sperizin. The deduced 326-amino acid protein contains a RING finger motif. Northern blot analysis of adult mouse tissues detected sperizin in testis only. Sperizin was not expressed in prepubertal testis. Fractionation of mouse testicular cells revealed sperizin in the germ cell fraction, and sperizin was not detected in testis with defective germ cell differentiation. Fluorescence-tagged sperizin was expressed in the cytoplasm of transfected HeLa cells.

By interspecific backcross analysis, Fujii et al. (1999) mapped the mouse Znrf4 gene to a region of chromosome 17 that shares homology of synteny with human chromosome 19p13.3.