title: Mammalian Groucho homologs: redundancy or specificity?
abstract: The proteins termed TLE in humans, Grg in mice and Groucho in Drosophila constitute a family of transcriptional corepressors. In mammalians there are five different genes encoding an even larger number of proteins. Interactions between these TLE/Grg proteins and an array of transcription factors has been described. But is there any specificity? This review tries to make a case for a non-redundant function of individual TLE/Grg proteins. The specificity may be brought about by a tightly controlled temporo-spatial expression pattern, post-translational modifications, and subtle structural differences leading to distinct preferences for interacting transcription factors. A confirmation of this concept will ultimately need to come from genetic experiments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Haematology and Oncology, University of Freiburg Medical Centre, 79106 Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Malgorzata
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gasperowicz
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Otto
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D051792:Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Proteins; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D038081:Organogenesis; D010766:Phosphorylation; D011485:Protein Binding; D012097:Repressor Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D051792:Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Proteins; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D012097:Repressor Proteins; C091023:gro protein, Drosophila