C7orf38 is a gene located on chromosome 7 in the human genome. The gene is expressed in nearly all tissue types at very low levels. Evolutionarily, it can be found throughout the kingdom animalia. While the function of the protein is not fully understood by the scientific community, bioinformatic tools have shown that the protein bares much similarity to zinc finger or transposase proteins. Many of its orthologs, paralogs, and neighboring genes have been shown to possess zinc finger domains. The protein contains a hAT dimerization domain nears its C-terminus. This domain is highly conserved in transposase enzymes.
Gene
C7orf38 is located on chromosome 7 at q22.1. Its genomic sequence contains 5,612 bp. The predominant transcript contains two exons and is 2,507 bp in length. The translated protein contains 573 amino acids.
Protein composition
The 573 amino acid protein has a molecular weight of 66,280.05. The isoelectric point was found to occur at a pH of 5.775, about 1.6 pH lower than that of the average human pH. Two deviations from prototypical human proteins are evident. The protein contains a less than expected number of glycine residues, and is rich in leucine residues. There are not sections of strong hydrophobicity or hydrophilicity. Thus, it is not predicted to be a transmembrane protein.
Gene neighborhood
The four genes in closest proximity to C7orf38 on chromosome 7 exhibit similar function, many of which are transcription factors.
Name Orientation Function ZNF789 Start: 98,908,451 bp from pter End: 98,923,153 bp from pter Size: 14,703 bases Orientation: plus strand The gene encodes the zinc finger protein 789. Functionally, the gene has been proposed to participate in regulation of transcription. It is expected to use zinc ion binding. ZNF394Start: 98,928,790 bp from pter End: 98,935,813 bp from pter Size: 7,024 bases Orientation : minus strandThe gene encodes zinc finger protein 394. Over expression over ZNF394 inhibits the transchription of c-jun and Ap-1. Suggesting that it is a transcriptional repressor. ZKSCAN5 Start: 98,940,209 bp from pter End: 98,969,381 bp from pter Size: 29,173 bases Orientation: plus strandThe gene encodes zinc finger with KRAB and SCAN domains 5. This gene encodes a zinc finger protein of the Kruppel family. The protein contains a SCAN box and a KRAB A domain.ZNF655Start: 98,993,981 bp from pter End: 99,012,012 bp from pter Size: 18,032 bases Orientation: plus strandThe gene encodes zinc finger protein 655. Numerous alternatively spliced transcripts encoding distinct isoforms have been discovered.MihuyaStart: 99,149,738 bp from pter End: 99,149,626 bp from pter Size: 112 bases Orientation: plus strandThe Mihuya gene does not encode a large or known functional protein. The antisense relationship to C7orf38 raises the possibility for regulation of expression.
Paralogs
Eight paralogs are found in the human proteome. Similar to the neighboring genes, many of the paralogs function as zinc fingers, or transcription factors. Name NCBI Accession Number Length (AA) % Identity to C7orf38 % Similarity to C7orf38 hypothetical protein LOC285550 NP_001138663.16577991 zinc finger MYM-type protein 6 NP_009098.313253860 SCAN domain-containing protein 3 NP_443155.113253960 zinc finger BED domain-containing protein 5 NP_067034.26923557 transposon-derived Buster3 transposase-like NP_071373.25943253 general transcription factor II-I repeat domain-containing protein 2B NP_001003795.19492546 GTF2I repeat domain containing 2 NP_775808.29492445 EPM2A interacting protein 1 NP_055620.16072242
Orthologs Orthologs to C7orf38 can be traced back evolutionarily through plants. The following is not an extensive list of orthologs. It is intended to provide an evolutionary overview of the conservation of C7orf38. Common name Genus & species NCBI accession number Length (AA) % Identity to C7orf38 % Similarity to C7orf38 Chimp Pan troglodytes XP_001139775.1 573 99 99 Macaque monkey Macaca fascicularis BAE01234.1 573 96 98 Horse Equus caballus XP_001915370.1 573 81 84 Pig Sus scrofa XP_001929194 1323 39 61 Cow Bos taurus XP_875656.2 1320 38 61 Mouse Mus musculus CAM15594.1 1157 37 60 Domestic dog Canis lupus familiaris ABF22701.1 609 37 60 Rat Rattus rattus NP_001102151.1 1249 37 59 Opossum Monodelphis domestica XP_001372983.1 608 37 59 Chicken Gallus gallus XP_424913.2 641 37 58 Frog Xenopus (Silurana) tropicalis ABF20551.1 656 37 56 Zebra fish Danio rerio XP_001340213.1 609 37 56 Pea aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum XP_001943527.1 659 36 54 Beatle Tribolium castaneum ABF20545.1 599 35 55 Sea squirt Ciona intestinalis XP_002119512.1 524 34 52 Hydra Hydra magnipapillata XP_002165429.1 572 29 52 Puffer fish Tetraodon nigroviridis CAF95678.1 539 28 47 Mosquito Anopheles gambiae XP_558399.5 591 28 47 Sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus ABF20546.1 625 27 47 Grass plant Sorghum bicolor XP_002439156.1 524 25 40 Broad leaf tree Populus trichocarpa XP_002319808.1 788 21 39
Structure
Protein
CBLast was used to determine a structurally related protein with experimentally determined structure. The protein Hermes DNA transposase, of the Hermes DBD superfamily, was shown to be structurally similar (Evalue: 1E-6).
The hAT dimerization domain is found at the C-terminus of transposase elements belonging to the Activator superfamily (hAT element superfamily). The isolated dimerization domain forms extremely stable dimers in vitro.
mRNA
The MFOLD program available at Rensselaer BioInformatics Server was used to predict secondary structure of the mature mRNA sequence. The primary sequence of the mRNA secondary structures displayed high levels of conservation in orthologs, suggesting structural importance.
Tissue distribution The gene appears to be expressed in most tissue types. Very low levels of expression were observed through est profiles, and no deviation was observed between health or developmental states.
References