title: Murine Stat2 is uncharacteristically divergent.
abstract: Characterization of the ability of human interferons (IFNs) to rapidly induce genes led to the identification of the first two members of the STAT (signal transducers and activators of transcription) family, Stat1 and Stat2. To study the unique role of this transcription factor in IFN signaling under more physiological conditions, murine Stat2 was isolated and found to be surprisingly divergent. This divergence was most striking in the C-terminal transcriptional activation domain. Studies on murine Stat2 indicate that it functions in IFN signaling. This includes IFN-alpha-dependent activation, nuclear translocation, DNA binding and activation of reporter genes. However, the profound divergence at the C-terminus suggests that murine Stat2 may have evolved to mediate some unique functions as well. To explore this possibility, proteins that interact with the C-termini of murine and human Stat2 were examined. These studies indicate that the murine and human C-termini interact with an overlapping, but distinct set of proteins.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Microbiology and Medicine, Columbia University, HHSC-1212, 701 West 168th Street, New York, NY 10032, USA.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Lecomte
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schindler
mesh_terms: D020816:Amino Acid Motifs; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001692:Biological Transport / Q000187:drug effects; D002460:Cell Line; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000378:metabolism; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D017124:Conserved Sequence / Q000235:genetics; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D006801:Humans; D016898:Interferon-alpha / Q000494:pharmacology; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D008970:Molecular Weight; D011485:Protein Binding; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D050795:STAT2 Transcription Factor; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D018909:src Homology Domains
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D016898:Interferon-alpha; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D050795:STAT2 Transcription Factor; C494084:STAT2 protein, human; C494085:Stat2 protein, mouse; D015534:Trans-Activators