Sox基因家族研究的新进展

New Advances in Sox Gene Family

Sox基因家族是在动物中发现的一类新的编码转录因子的基因家族,其产物具有一个HMG基序保守区,参与诸如性别决定、骨组织的发育、血细胞生成、神经系统的发育、晶状体的发育等多种早期胚胎发育过程。人类SOX基因的突变或缺失会导致发育异常和严重的先天性疾病。SOX蛋白与其他转录因子相互作用形成复合体而发挥作用。同一Sox基因在不同的细胞或在同一细胞中对不同的启动子具有不同的影响。部分Sox基因之间在功能上相互交叉并且是可以相互替代的。本文比较全面地对Sox基因家族近几年来的新研究成果作一综述。

The Sox family of transcription factors are found throughout the animal kingdom. They are characterized by the presence of a HMG domain, involved in the regulation of such diverse developmental processes of early embryo-genesis as sex determination, chondrogenesis, haemopoiesis, neural development and lens development. The deletion or mutation of SOX proteins results in developmental defects and congential disease in human. One Sox gene has different effects on the same promoters in the different cells or the different promoters in a cell. Some Sox gene exhibit a remarkable crosstalk and functional redundancy among each other. This paper reviewed the advances related to the Sox gene family in recent years.