Seroatlas · Human Serome Atlas

ZNF138

Zinc finger protein 138

Also known as: pHZ-32, ZN138_HUMAN

Cross-references: UniProt · Ensembl · Human Protein Atlas · GeneCards · NCBI Gene

Protein identityUniProt · HPA

UniProt accession
P52744
Gene
ZNF138
Ensembl
ENSG00000197008
Chromosome
7
Canonical length
262 aa
Protein class
Predicted intracellular proteins, Transcription factors

OverviewNCBI Gene

Predicted to enable DNA-binding transcription factor activity, RNA polymerase II-specific and RNA polymerase II cis-regulatory region sequence-specific DNA binding activity. Predicted to be involved in regulation of DNA-templated transcription. Predicted to be located in membrane and nucleus. [provided by Alliance of Genome Resources, Jul 2025]

Canonical amino-acid sequenceUniProt

262 residues, UniProt reviewed canonical sequence.

>P52744|ZNF138
     1  MKRHEMVVAK HSALCSRFAQ DLWLEQNIKD SFQKVTLSRY GKYGHKNLQL RKGCKSVDEC
    61  KGHQGGFNGL NQCLKITTSK IFQCNKYVKV MHKFSNSNRH KIRHTENKHF RCKECDKSLC
   121  MLSRLTQHKK IHTRENFYKC EECGKTFNWS TNLSKPKKIH TGEKPYKCEV CGKAFHQSSI
   181  LTKHKIIRTG EKPYKCAHCG KAFKQSSHLT RHKIIHTEEK PYKCEQCGKV FKQSPTLTKH
   241  QIIYTGEEPY KCEECGKAFN LS

LocalizationUniProt · AlphaFold · HPA

Whether an antibody against ZNF138 can act on the native protein depends on physical access: surface and secreted proteins are reachable by circulating antibodies, intracellular proteins usually are not.

Antibody reachability
Intracellular
Secreted
No
Transmembrane segments
0
Mean surface accessibility (rSASA)
0.46
Highest tissue expression
6.9 nTPM

Expression across tissuesHPA

Tissue

  • breast: 6.9 nTPM
  • skin: 6.8 nTPM
  • spinal cord: 6.1 nTPM
  • lymph node: 5.4 nTPM
  • tonsil: 5.2 nTPM
  • cerebral cortex: 5.1 nTPM

Single-cell type

  • myonuclei: 129 nCPM
  • gonadotrophs: 74 nCPM
  • brain inhibitory neurons: 72 nCPM
  • breast lactating cells: 72 nCPM
  • oligodendrocytes: 70 nCPM
  • brain excitatory neurons: 68 nCPM

Immune cell

  • basophil: 12 nTPM
  • memory B-cell: 7.4 nTPM
  • naive B-cell: 7.4 nTPM
  • naive CD4 T-cell: 6.6 nTPM
  • memory CD8 T-cell: 6.3 nTPM
  • naive CD8 T-cell: 6.3 nTPM

Brain region

  • cerebellum: 31 nTPM
  • white matter: 29 nTPM
  • cerebral cortex: 27 nTPM
  • pons: 24 nTPM
  • midbrain: 24 nTPM
  • basal ganglia: 24 nTPM

Genetic constraint and essentialitygnomAD · DepMap

Does the body need this protein intact? Low LOEUF or a strong DepMap dependency means loss or blockade of the protein is likely to be felt.

gnomAD LOEUF (loss-of-function intolerance)
1.69
gnomAD pLI
0.05
gnomAD missense Z
-0.25
DepMap mean gene effect
-0.03
DepMap dependency class
none

Cancer expressionTCGA

Across TCGA tumor cohorts, this protein is over-expressed in roughly 10% of surveyed tumor types (aggregate summary; per-cohort expression, alteration, and survival load in the interactive view).

OntologyGO

Biological processes

Molecular functions

Cellular components

Protein domainsUniProt · Pfam · InterPro

KeywordsUniProt

Antibody and autoantibody relevanceSeroatlas analysis

Seroatlas reads ZNF138 as an antibody target. Whether an autoantibody or antibody against ZNF138 could matter depends on whether native ZNF138 is physically reachable, whether the body needs it intact, and whether it acts in a disease-relevant tissue.

ZNF138 is annotated as predominantly intracellular. Intracellular proteins are common autoantibody markers, becoming visible to the immune system after cell injury or altered processing, but are usually markers of disease rather than direct drivers.

Annotation status

The present source text does not explicitly label ZNF138 as an autoantigen. Seroatlas presents hypothesis context only and does not manufacture a known-serology claim.

Canonical record: https://seroatlas.com/gene/ZNF138. Study-independent annotations aggregated from UniProt, Human Protein Atlas, PubMed, IEDB, Pfam, InterPro, Gene Ontology, AlphaFold, gnomAD, DepMap, ClinVar, TCGA. Catalog release seroatlas-reviewed-human-uniprot-20260313.

Seroatlas is the reference for exploring autoantibody and antibody serology at the human-protein level: the autoreactome and human serome, multiplex serology (HuProt, HuScan, VirScan, PhIP-Seq).

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