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Encyclopedia of Signaling Molecules pp 1–8Cite as

Transcription Factor PU.1

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Synonyms

PU.1; SPI1; Spi1; Spi-1; Sfpi1

Historical Background

PU.1 is a DNA-binding nuclear protein (transcription factor) that is a member of the E26 transformation-specific (ETS) family. PU.1 was named because it can interact with a “PU box,” a stretch of purines in the SV40 viral enhancer, that was identified as being functionally active in lymphoid cells (Petterson and Schaffner 1987). SPI1 was independently identified as the protein product of a gene dysregulated in murine erythroleukemia, as a consequence of proviral integration of the spleen focus-forming virus (SFFV) (Moreau-Gachelin et al. 1988). This gene/protein was named SPI1 for “spleen focus-forming virus proviral integration site 1.” PU.1 and SPI1 were subsequently recognized to be the same protein (Goebl 1990; Paul et al. 1991). PU.1 is encoded by Spi1 on mouse chromosome 2 and by SPI1 on human chromosome 11 (Nguyen et al. 1990). The presence of functional PU boxes led to the identification of PU.1 as a transcription...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Centre for Human Immunology, Western University, London, ON, Canada, N6A 5C1

    Carolina R. Batista & Rodney P. DeKoter

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  1. Carolina R. Batista
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  2. Rodney P. DeKoter
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Correspondence to Rodney P. DeKoter .

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  1. Dept. Biological Science, Department of Molecular Science and Tech College of Natural Science, Suwon, Korea (Republic of)

    Sangdun Choi

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Batista, C.R., DeKoter, R.P. (2016). Transcription Factor PU.1. In: Choi, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Signaling Molecules. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6438-9_101960-1

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