ZFP42

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Description

The ZFP42 (ZFP42 zinc finger protein) is a protein-coding gene located on chromosome 4.

Rex1 (ZFP42) is a known marker of pluripotency, usually found in undifferentiated embryonic stem cells. Its regulation is crucial for maintaining a pluripotent state. Rex1 expression is severely and abruptly downregulated during cell differentiation. Discovered in 1989 by Hosler, BA et al. while studying F9 murine teratocarcinoma stem cells, Rex1 was found to be highly expressed in these cells, resembling pluripotent stem cells of the inner cell mass (ICM). Upon exposure to retinoic acid (RA), these teratocarcinoma stem cells differentiated into nontumorigenic cells resembling extraembryonic endoderm of early mouse embryos. Rex1's nucleotide sequence was isolated using differential hybridization of an F9 cell. It was named Rex1 for reduced expression 1 due to a steady decline of its mRNA levels within 12 hours of RA addition. Rex1 is a protein encoded by the ZFP42 gene in humans.

ZFP42 is also known as REX-1, REX1, ZNF754, zfp-42.

Associated Diseases

• lysosomal storage disease
• multiple sclerosis
• Parkinson disease
• Alzheimer disease
• male infertility with teratozoospermia due to single gene mutation
• partial chromosome Y deletion
• spermatogenic failure 51
• spermatogenic failure, X-linked, 3
• spermatogenic failure, X-linked, 2
• spermatogenic failure 25
• spermatogenic failure 40
• congenital bilateral absence of vas deferens
• spermatogenic failure 39
• spermatogenic failure 65
• spinocerebellar ataxia type 32
• spermatogenic failure 47