Based on mouse studies, ZNF423 recruits the transcriptional repressor complex NuRD to EBF2 target gene loci. NuRD subunits shown to associate with ZNF423 by mass spectrometry include GATAD2B, HDAC2, MTA1, MTA2, CHD4, RBBP4 (RbAp48), and RBBP7 (RbAp46). NuRD subunits shown to associate with ZNF423 by co-immunoprecipitation followed by immunoblotting include CHD4, MTA1, HDAC1, and RBBP7. NuRD subunit CHD4 was shown to co-localize with ZNF423 and EBF2 at regulatory regions of EBF2 targets UCP1 and PPARA. In mouse cells, recombinant ZNF423 mutant protein lacking the NuRD interaction domain (ZNF423deltaNID) was shown to act as a dominant negative and lead to increased expression of EBF2 targets UCP1, CIDEA, and DIO2 (Shao et al. 2021).

Based on the strength of experimental evidence, UCP1 and PPARA genes are annotated as members of EBF2 target gene subset regulated by ZNF423 and NuRD, while CIDEA and DIO2 are annotated as candidates.