title: The identification and characterization of human Sister-of-Mammalian Grainyhead (SOM) expands the grainyhead-like family of developmental transcription factors.
abstract: The Drosophila gene grainyhead is the founding member of a large family of genes encoding developmental transcription factors that are highly conserved from fly to human. The family consists of two main branches, with grainyhead as the ancestral gene for one branch and the recently cloned Drosophila CP2 as the ancestral gene for the other. We now extend this family with the identification of another novel mammalian member, Sister-of-Mammalian Grainyhead (SOM), which is phylogenetically aligned with grainyhead. SOM is closely related to the other mammalian homologues of grainyhead, including Mammalian Grainyhead (MGR) and Brother-of-MGR, sharing a high degree of sequence identity with these factors in the functional DNA-binding, protein dimerization and activation domains. Protein interaction studies demonstrate that SOM can heterodimerize with MGR and Brother-of-MGR, but not with the more distant members of the family. Like grainyhead, the SOM gene too produces several distinct isoforms with differing functional properties through alternative splicing. The tissue distributions of these isoforms differ and all display highly restricted expression patterns. These findings indicate that SOM, like its family members, may play important roles in mammalian development.
authors.affiliation: Rotary Bone Marrow Research Laboratories, Royal Melbourne Hospital Research Foundation, c/o Royal Melbourne Hospital Post Office, Grattan Street, Parkville, Victoria 3050, Australia.
authors.forename: Stephen B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Ting
authors.forename: Tomasz
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wilanowski
authors.forename: Loretta
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cerruti
authors.forename: Lin-Lin
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: John M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Cunningham
authors.forename: Stephen M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Jane
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D020033:Protein Isoforms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D014018:Tissue Distribution; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D020798:Two-Hybrid System Techniques
chemical_list: D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; C470830:GRHL2 protein, human; C473143:GRHL3 protein, human; D020033:Protein Isoforms; D014157:Transcription Factors