CDNA CLONING AND CHARACTERIZATION OF MOUSE DTEF-1 AND ETF, MEMBERS OFTHE TEA ATTS FAMILY OF TRANSCRIPTION FACTORS/

Members of the TEA/ATTS family of transcription factors have been foun d in most representative eukaryotic organisms. In vertebrates, the TEA family contains at least four members, which share overlapping DNA-bi nding specificity and have similar transcriptional activation properti es. In this article, we describe the cDNA cloning and characterization of the murine TEA proteins DTEF-1 (mDTEF-1) and ETF. Using in situ hy bridization analysis of mouse embryos, we found that mDTEF-1 and ETF t ranscript distributions substantially overlap, ETF is expressed throug hout the embryo except in the myocardium early in development, whereas late in development, it is enriched in lung and neuroectoderm. Mouse DTEF-1 is expressed at a much lower level throughout development and i s substantially enriched in ectoderm and skin, as well as in the devel oping pituitary at midgestation. Northern blot analysis of adult mouse tissue total RNA showed that both ETF and mDTEF-1 are abundant in ute rus and lung relative to other tissues. Using gel mobility shift assay s and GAL4-fusion protein analysis, we demonstrated that the full codi ng sequences of ETF and mDTEF-1 encode M-CAT/GT-IIC-binding proteins c ontaining activation domains.