Collum R G, Alt F W
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, New York 10032.
Cancer Cells. 1990 Mar;2(3):69-75.
Expression of the myc family of cellular proto-oncogenes is critical for determining the proliferative, differentiative, and oncogenic potential of a wide variety of cell types. Despite a large body of genetic and biochemical data indicating that myc proteins are located in the nucleus and can bind to nucleic acids, the mechanism by which these proteins exert their effects remains a mystery. The recent observation that myc proteins contain two structural domains previously identified in transcription factors and differentiation factors, the leucine zipper domain and the helix-loop-helix motif, supports the notion that these proteins directly regulate gene expression. In this review we consider the possible significance of these domains to myc function.
细胞原癌基因myc家族的表达对于决定多种细胞类型的增殖、分化和致癌潜能至关重要。尽管大量的遗传学和生物化学数据表明myc蛋白定位于细胞核且能与核酸结合，但其发挥作用的机制仍是个谜。最近的观察发现，myc蛋白包含两个先前在转录因子和分化因子中鉴定出的结构域，即亮氨酸拉链结构域和螺旋-环-螺旋基序，这支持了这些蛋白直接调控基因表达的观点。在这篇综述中，我们探讨了这些结构域对myc功能可能具有的重要意义。
