Early B-Cell Factor 1 (EBF1)

Early B-cell factor (EBF) is a tissue-specific and differentiation stage-specific DNA-binding protein that participates in the regulation of the pre-B and B lymphocyte-specific MB1 gene. Travis et al. (1993) purified the mouse Ebf protein from pre-B cells and found that it is composed of two 62- to 65-kD subunits. Hagman et al. (1993) determined partial amino acid sequences of Ebf and used them to isolate mouse pre-B-cell cDNAs encoding Ebf. The predicted 591-amino acid protein has 2 functional domains: an N-terminal cysteine-rich region essential for DNA binding, and a C-terminal dimerization region containing two 15-amino acid repeats with similarity to the dimerization domains of basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) proteins. The calculated molecular mass of the encoded Ebf protein is 64.4 kD.