The zinc-finger motif found in many transcription factors is thought to be important for human heart development and diseases. In this study. we have identified and characterized a novel zinc-finger gene named ZNF480 using degenerate primers from an early human embryo heart cDNA library. ZNF480 contains a KRAB-A box and 12 C2H2 zinc fingers. The cDNA sequence contains an open reading frame of 1551 bp, encoding a putative protein of 516 amino acid residues with a predicted molecular mass of 57 kDa. Northern blot analysis indicates that a 4.7 kb transcript specific for ZNF480 is expressed only in embryonic heart. In the adult tissues, the expression of ZNF480 is restricted largely to heart, skeletal muscle, pancreas, and placenta. Overexpression of ZNF480 in cells activates the transcriptional activities of AP-1 and SRE. Therefore, our data suggest that ZNF480 may act as a positive regulator in MAPK-mediated signaling pathways that lead to the activation of AP-1 and SRE. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.