GATA transcription factors play critical roles in restricting cell lineage differentiation during development. Here, we show that conditional inactivation of GATA-6 in VSMCs results in perinatal mortality from a spectrum of cardiovascular defects, including interrupted aortic arch and persistent truncus arteriosus. Inactivation of GATA-6 in neural crest recapitulates these abnormalities, demons...

Enhancers can regulate designate promoters over long distances by forming chromatin loops. Whether chromatin loops are lost or reconfigured during gene repression is largely unexplored. We examined the chromosome conformation of the Kit gene that is expressed during early erythropoiesis but is downregulated upon cell maturation. Kit expression is controlled by sequential occupancy of two GATA f...

The transcription factor GATA-6 is known to be a critical determinant of early vertebrate development. We have shown previously that mammalian GATA-6 genes have the potential to encode two protein isoforms, resulting from alternative, in-frame, initiator methionine codons. We have generated GATA-6 antibodies, including one specific to the longer form of GATA-6, and by immunohistochemical analys...

The zinc finger transcription factor GATA-2 is highly expressed in immature hematopoietic cells and declines with blood cell maturation. To investigate its role in normal adult hematopoiesis, a bicistronic retroviral vector encoding GATA-2 and the green fluorescent protein (GFP) was used to maintain the high levels of GATA-2 that are normally present in primitive hematopoietic cells. Coexpressi...

BACKGROUND Recent data suggest that GATA-4 is an antiapoptotic factor required for adaptive responses and a key regulator of hypertrophy and hypertrophy-associated genes in the heart. As a leading cause of chronic heart failure, reversal of postinfarction left ventricular remodeling represents an important target for therapeutic interventions. Here, we studied the role of GATA-4 as a mediator o...

Part of heterodimeric inhibin, inhibinis crucial for mammalian ovarian function. Regulation of inhibinexpression in granulosa cells is both endocrine, primarily by follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), and paracrine, primarily by members of the transforming growth factor (TGF) superfamily. Smad proteins transmit TGFsignals to the nucleus, but the cooperating transcription factors involved in inhi...

GATA1 is mutated in patients with 2 different disorders. First, individuals with a GATA1 mutation that blocks the interaction between GATA-1 and its cofactor Friend of GATA-1 (FOG-1) suffer from dyserythropoietic anemia and thrombocytopenia. Second, children with Down syndrome who develop acute megakaryoblastic leukemia harbor mutations in GATA1 that lead to the exclusive expression of a shorte...

Endothelial vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) is expressed in response to cytokine stimulation and plays a critical role in inflammatory reactions. Previously, we developed a novel VCAM-1 inhibitor that acts through a mechanism independent of nuclear factor-kappaB activity. It suppresses the binding activity of GATA proteins in cytokine-stimulated endothelial cells, which may be relate...

The transcription factor GATA-3 is required for normal mammary gland development, and its expression is highly correlated with estrogen receptor alpha (ER alpha) in human breast tumors. However, the functional role of GATA-3 in ER alpha-positive breast cancers is yet to be established. Here, we show that GATA-3 is required for estradiol stimulation of cell cycle progression in breast cancer cel...

In ecdysozoan protostomes, including arthropods and nematodes, transcription factors of the GATA family specify the endoderm: Drosophila dGATAb (ABF/Serpent) and Caenorhabditis elegans END-1 play important roles in generating this primary germ layer. end-1 is the earliest expressed endoderm-specific gene known in C. elegans and appears to initiate the program of gene expression required for end...