title: Molecular cloning and characterization of AP-2 epsilon, a fifth member of the AP-2 family.
abstract: The mammalian AP-2 family of transcription factors consists of four members, AP-2 alpha, AP-2 beta, AP-2 gamma and AP-2 delta, which play an important role in regulating gene expression during development and differentiation of multiple organs and tissues. The defining feature of the AP-2 family is a highly conserved carboxy-terminal basic helix-turn-helix domain that is involved in dimerization and sequence-specific DNA-binding. In this report, we use bioinformatics to identify both the mouse and human AP-2 epsilon, a fifth member of the AP-2 family. The predicted mouse and human AP-2 epsilon proteins consist of 442 amino acids and show a high level of sequence similarity with other AP-2 proteins in the DNA-binding and dimerization domain and weak similarity in the N-terminal activation domain. Northern blot analysis reveals that among the adult mouse tissues examined, AP-2 epsilon is highly expressed in skin tissue. The human AP-2 epsilon gene maps to chromosome 1p42, consists of seven exons spanning 23 kb and exhibits a genomic structure similar to other AP-2 family members. Human AP-2 epsilon mRNA is expressed in human skin and keratinocytes grown in culture. Finally, we show that recombinant AP-2 epsilon can bind to AP-2 binding sequences from keratin promoters in electrophoretic mobility shift assays. Our study establishes AP-2 epsilon as a novel member of the AP-2 family, and suggests that it may play an important role in skin biology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, State University of New York at Buffalo, 3435 Main Street, 121 Farber Hall, Buffalo, NY 14214, USA.
authors.forename: Ramakumar
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tummala
authors.forename: Rose-Anne
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Romano
authors.forename: Elaine
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fuchs
authors.forename: Satrajit
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sinha
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001665:Binding Sites / Q000235:genetics; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D002460:Cell Line; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D024202:Electrophoretic Mobility Shift Assay; D015870:Gene Expression; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D015603:Keratinocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family / Q000235:genetics*; D009841:Oligonucleotides / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D011485:Protein Binding; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012867:Skin / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D050656:Transcription Factor AP-2; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D009841:Oligonucleotides; D012333:RNA, Messenger; C493680:TFAP2E protein, human; C493671:Tfap2d protein, mouse; C493672:Tfap2e protein, mouse; D050656:Transcription Factor AP-2; D014157:Transcription Factors