Apoptosis Antagonizing Transcription Factor (AATF)

Protein AATF  was identified on the basis of its interaction with MAP3K12/DLK, a protein kinase known to be involved in the induction of cell apoptosis. This gene product contains a leucine zipper, which is a characteristic motif of transcription factors, and was shown to exhibit strong transactivation activity when fused to Gal4 DNA binding domain. Overexpression of this gene interfered with MAP3K12 induced apoptosis.By differential display for genes downregulated by TGFB in an intestinal crypt epithelial cell line, Lindfors et al. (2000) cloned AATF.The AATF transcript contains several 4-nucleotide repeats, and the deduced 560-amino acid protein contains a leucine zipper motif, several phosphorylation sites, a nuclear localization signal, and 3 nuclear receptor LxxLL binding motifs.