Fig. (2).

Proposed model of Zic3 regulatory mechanism. In pluripotent ES cells, Zic3 is likely to act as a general TF, binding to basal transcriptional elements near the promoter of pluripotency genes. In the developing embryo, Zic3 binds mainly to distal enhancer elements to regulate tissue-specific expression of target genes. The binding to different enhancer elements is regulated spatiotemporally through epigenetic mechanisms or recruitment by different binding partners represented by grey colored shapes.