Methylation of cytosines in CpG rich DNA sequences is one of the major epigenetic mechanisms of gene regulation; however the means by which these marks are read and interpreted by specific proteins is not well understood. We are interested in the protein Kaiso, a member of the BTB/POZ transcription factor family characterized by an N-terminal POZ domain and three C-terminal C2H2 -zinc fingers. Formerly Kaiso has been shown to function as a gene repressor by binding specifically not only to methylated DNA, but also to an unrelated non-methylated sequence via its zinc fingers.
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