Zinc Finger Protein 143 (ZNF143) is a pervasive C2H2 zinc-finger transcriptional activator protein regulating the efficiency of eukaryotic promoter regions. ZNF143 is able to activate transcription at both protein coding genes and small RNA genes transcribed by either RNA polymerase II or RNA polymerase III. Target genes regulated by ZNF143 are involved in an array of different cellular processes including both cancer and development. Although a key player in regulating eukaryotic genes, the molecular mechanism by with ZNF143 binds and activates genes transcribed by two different polymerases is still relatively unknown. In addition to its role as a transcriptional regulator, recent genomics experiments have implicated ZNF143 as a potential co-factor involved in chromatin looping and establishing higher order structure within the genome. This review focuses primarily on possible activation mechanisms of promoters by ZNF143, with less emphasis on the role of ZNF143 in cancer and development, and its function in establishing higher order chromatin contacts within the genome.

锌指蛋白143（ZNF143）是一种普遍的C2H2锌指转录激活蛋白，可调节真核启动子区域的效率。ZNF143能够激活RNA聚合酶II或RNA聚合酶III转录的蛋白质编码基因和小RNA基因的转录。由ZNF143调控的靶基因与一系列不同的细胞过程有关，包括癌症和发育。尽管在调节真核生物基因中起关键作用，但ZNF143结合并激活由两种不同聚合酶转录的基因的分子机制仍然相对未知。除了其作为转录调节因子的作用外，最近的基因组学实验还表明ZNF143是参与染色质环化并在基因组内建立更高阶结构的潜在辅助因子。