Dang D T, Pevsner J, Yang V W
Department of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 918 Ross Research Building, 720 Rutland Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
Int J Biochem Cell Biol. 2000 Nov-Dec;32(11-12):1103-21. doi: 10.1016/s1357-2725(00)00059-5.
Recent advances in molecular cloning have led to the identification of a large number of mammalian zinc finger-containing transcription factors that exhibit homology to the Drosophila melanogaster protein, Krüppel. Although the amino acid sequences in the zinc finger domains of these Krüppel-like factors (KLFs) are closely related to one another, the regions outside the zinc fingers of the proteins are usually unique. KLFs display seemingly different and broad biological properties with each functioning as an activator of transcription, a repressor or both. This review article provides a current phylogenetic classification of the identified KLFs to date. More importantly, the currently known biological activities of the KLFs in regulating transcription, cell proliferation, differentiation and development are summarized and compared. Further characterization of this interesting protein family should provide additional insights into the their respective regulatory role in various important biological processes.
分子克隆技术的最新进展已促使人们鉴定出大量含有锌指结构的哺乳动物转录因子，这些转录因子与果蝇蛋白Krüppel具有同源性。尽管这些类Krüppel因子（KLFs）锌指结构域中的氨基酸序列彼此密切相关，但蛋白质锌指结构以外的区域通常是独特的。KLFs表现出看似不同且广泛的生物学特性，每个KLF都可作为转录激活因子、阻遏因子或兼具二者功能。本文综述了目前已鉴定出的KLFs的系统发育分类。更重要的是，总结并比较了KLFs目前已知的在调节转录、细胞增殖、分化和发育方面的生物学活性。对这个有趣的蛋白质家族的进一步表征应能为其在各种重要生物学过程中各自的调节作用提供更多见解。
