Background information
The forkhead domain-containing gene family (Fox) comprises over 20 members in mammals and is defined by a conserved 110 amino-acid motif containing a winged helix structure DNA-binding domain. The members of this gene family have been implicated as key regulators of embryogenesis, cell cycling, cell lineage restriction and cancer. As such, FOXN2 contains a domain with homology to the forkhead DNA binding domain. FOXN2, or Human T-cell leukemia virus enhancer factor, is a 341 amino acid protein mapping to human gene FOXN2, which has been localized to human chromosome 2p16-p22. This protein, encoded by a 1239-bp cDNA isolated from the Jurkat cDNA library, is capable of binding to a region of the human T-cell leukemia virus long terminal repeat (HTLV-I LTR) located between amino acids 155 and 117. This purine-rich region is important in the regulation of gene expression by the Ets family of transcription factors. FOXN2 is a unique cellular gene that may function in the transcriptional regulation of HTLV-I LTR.
