Genomic organization of the human e1af gene, a member of Ets transcriptionfactors

The E1AF protein belongs to the family of Ets transcription factors and is involved in the regulation of metastasis gene expression. It has recently b een reported in an undifferentiated child sarcoma that part of this gene co uld be fused by translocation to the ews gene. We show here that the human e1af gene, which is located in the q21 region of chromosome 17, is organize d in 13 exons distributed along 19 kb of genomic DNA. Its two main function al domains, the acidic domain and the DNA-binding ETS domain, are each enco ded by three different exons. The 3'-untranslated region of e1af is 0.7 kb. The 5'-untranslated region is about 0.3 kb and is composed of a first exon upstream from the exon containing the first methionine. These data could p ossibly accelerate an understanding of the molecular basis of putative inhe rited diseases linked to E1AF. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights re served.