You bet-cha: a novel family of transcriptional regulators.
The BET proteins are a novel class of transcriptional regulators whose members can be found in animals, plants and fungi. Founding members are Human RING3, Drosophila Fsh and yeast Bdf1p. BET proteins are distinguished by an N-terminal bromodomain or bromodomains and an ET domain. As predicted by the presence of the bromodomain(s), these proteins have been found to be associated with chromatin. The poorly characterized ET domain functions as a protein-protein interaction motif and may be part of a serine-kinase activity. Other regions ("modular domains"), which are conserved only in certain BET proteins, are likely to provide sub-family specific functions. Genetic, biochemical and molecular techniques have implicated BET proteins in functions as diverse as meiosis, cell cycle control and homeosis. The data suggest that BET proteins may modulate chromatin structure and affect transcription via a sequence-independent mechanism. This review will attempt to summarize current research on BET proteins and envision where future research is likely to lead.
Florence
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Cancer Research Center, Boston University School of Medicine, 80 East Concord Street, Boston, MA, USA 02118, USA. bim@bu.edu
Faller
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D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009687:Nuclear Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology; D010802:Phylogeny; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D000092468:Bromodomain Containing Proteins
D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D029721:Drosophila Proteins; D009687:Nuclear Proteins; D017346:Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases; D029701:Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins; D014157:Transcription Factors; C091342:BDF1 protein, S cerevisiae; D000092468:Bromodomain Containing Proteins; C109569:fs(1)h protein, Drosophila; C413003:mitotic chromosome-associated protein, 200-kDa