The many forks in FOXO's road.
The FOXO family of transcription factors constitute an evolutionarily conserved subgroup within the larger family known as winged helix or Forkhead transcriptional regulators. Building upon work in the nematode, researchers have uncovered a role for these proteins in a diverse set of cellular responses that include glucose metabolism, stress response, cell cycle regulation, and apoptosis. At the organismal level, FOXO transcription factors are believed to function in various pathological processes ranging from cancer and diabetes to organismal aging. A number of studies have also shed light on the signaling pathways that regulate FOXO activity in response to external stimuli and have identified multiple FOXO target genes that mediate this varied set of biological responses.
Tran
Hien
H
Department of Neurobiology, Division of Neuroscience, Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Brunet
Anne
A
Griffith
Eric C
EC
Greenberg
Michael E
ME
D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D000071161:Forkhead Box Protein O1; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors; D006801:Humans; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000502:physiology; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*
D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; C085126:FOXO1 protein, human; D000071161:Forkhead Box Protein O1; D051858:Forkhead Transcription Factors; D014157:Transcription Factors