Involved in transcriptional regulation. Represses the transcription of a number of genes. Required for primitive and definitive hematopoiesis during embryonic development. Detected in posterior lateral mesoderm, head mesenchyme and the intermediate cell mass in embryos 24 hours after fertilization. Knock-down of the znf148 mRNA disrupts both primitive and definitive hematopoiesis, but does not affect primary blood vessel formation. Most embryos die before four days after fertilization. Belongs to the krueppel C2H2-type zinc-finger protein family.