A transcription factor is a protein that regulates transcription. Combinations of transcription factors help select gene expression patterns during cell differentiation. [ref]
Anatomy and Physiology 2e by J. Gordon Betts and others. Anatomy and Physiology 2e, §3.6, Differentiation and Figure 3.35: transcription factors
A Drosophila transcription factor supplied through maternal and zygotic expression. Posterior Nanos-dependent repression of the maternal messenger RNA and anterior Bicoid-dependent transcription make distinct contributions.
A Drosophila maternal homeodomain protein concentrated anteriorly. It activates zygotic transcription in a concentration-dependent context and also represses translation of Caudal messenger RNA.
A forkhead-family transcription factor associated with axial mesendoderm and definitive endoderm specification.
A signal-responsive transcriptional effector that can act with SMAD2 in Nodal-related developmental signalling.
A TEAD-family transcription factor whose activity with YAP participates in mouse trophectoderm specification.
A Caudal-related transcription factor supplying an additional input into the Caenorhabditis elegans endomesoderm network.
A divergent Caenorhabditis elegans beta-catenin coactivator that binds POP-1. A high SYS-1-to-POP-1 ratio supports transcriptional activation in the appropriate posterior daughter.
The Caenorhabditis elegans TCF-family transcription factor. Its action depends on nuclear abundance and availability of SYS-1, so it can repress or activate endoderm targets in different daughter cells.
A GATA transcription factor acting with ELT-2 across the specification-to-differentiation transition in the Caenorhabditis elegans intestine.
A GATA transcription factor important in intestinal differentiation and maintenance in Caenorhabditis elegans, with overlapping functions with ELT-7.
A transient GATA transcription factor acting in early Caenorhabditis elegans endoderm specification and contributing to END-1 activation.
A GATA transcription factor specifying Caenorhabditis elegans endoderm, with overlapping function with END-3. Forced expression can test bypass of an earlier regulatory requirement.
A divergent GATA transcription factor acting with MED-1. Parallel regulatory inputs mean that loss of the MED factors need not eliminate every intestinal cell in every embryo.
A divergent GATA transcription factor contributing to the robustness of Caenorhabditis elegans endomesoderm specification, partly redundantly with MED-2.
A maternal transcription factor providing endomesodermal input to the EMS lineage in Caenorhabditis elegans. Its effects include activation of MED factors and endoderm-specifying regulators.
A transcription factor family recognizing GATA-related DNA motifs. Successive GATA factors can implement specification, stabilization and differentiated gene expression in a developmental gene regulatory network.
A family of transcription factors connecting phytochrome signaling to growth and development. Family members have distinct targets and regulatory interactions.
An Arabidopsis transcription factor linking environmental and hormonal inputs to growth. DELLA binding can restrict its DNA-binding activity.
A DNA-binding architectural regulator associated with many mammalian chromatin-loop anchors and boundaries. Motif orientation and neighbouring factors affect its architectural roles.
A neurogenic transcription factor whose role in direct neuronal conversion illustrates context-dependent chromatin engagement and hierarchical factor action.[ref]
A transcription factor able to engage certain nucleosomal or otherwise inaccessible DNA contexts and facilitate subsequent regulatory changes. Opening after expression does not alone prove direct pioneer action.
A family of transcription factors regulating genes involved in cell-cycle progression and DNA replication. RB-associated regulation connects their output to cyclin-dependent-kinase activity.
The repressor controlling the lac operon. Operator binding represses transcription, while inducer binding shifts the conformational equilibrium towards lower operator occupancy.
A transcriptional repression domain used in some dCas9 fusions to recruit repression machinery. Its effect depends on target position and cellular chromatin context.
A family of transcriptional regulators affecting cellular growth and proliferation. Experimental elevation of Drosophila dMyc can drive elimination of lower-expressing neighbours; this is a cell-competition phenotype, not by itself a complete model of cancer.
A homeodomain transcriptional regulator involved in cardiac specification, progenitor regulation and subsequent heart development. Early and late perturbations can test different functions.
A developmental transcriptional regulator whose ventral limb expression helps organize dorsal-ventral signalling boundaries.
A LIM-homeodomain transcriptional regulator associated with dorsal limb identity.
A Drosophila counterpart of mammalian NRF2, regulating oxidative-stress-response genes. Its activation can be protective yet also alter neighbour-dependent competitive behaviour.
A transcriptional regulator of antioxidant and detoxification responses. Its protective activity and its effect on relative competitive fitness depend on tissue, activation level and neighbourhood.
A transcriptional regulator involved in intestinal secretory-lineage specification. Its activity participates in the balance between secretory and absorptive epithelial output.
RccR is a metabolite-responsive transcriptional regulator of central carbon genes in studied Pseudomonas species. In Pseudomonas aeruginosa, KDPG binding and repression of shunt-associated genes connect carbon state to enzyme expression.
Hepatocyte nuclear factor 1 beta, a DNA-binding transcriptional regulator. The supplied exam model uses it as an isoform-dependent corepressor; that experimental role should not be generalized to every tissue or target.
A T-cell-factor-family regulator in Wnt signalling. Mechanistic claims about specifically named long and short products in an experimental problem require the stated isoform sequences and cellular context.
A transcription factor that increases transcription of a target gene. It can act by recruiting or modulating the RNA polymerase machinery and its associated factors.
A reproductive regulator related to LEAFY and considered in comparative hypotheses of flower origins. Gene-copy history alone does not determine ancestral organ morphology.
A plant reproductive-development regulator whose comparative history informs hypotheses about the reorganization of reproductive shoots.
A member of a regulatory protein family with roles including reproductive development. Interactions among members help combine regulatory activities during floral organ specification.
A group of floral regulators whose combined loss demonstrates requirements for normal inner floral organ specification.[ref]
An Arabidopsis thaliana regulator contributing to floral C function and reproductive organ identity.
A developmental regulator investigated through floral mutants and expression patterns in Antirrhinum. Its relatives can have changed spatial deployment in other lineages.[ref]
Origin of floral asymmetry in Antirrhinum by Da Luo and others. Dorsal floral growth and organ-patterning results
A class of plant developmental regulators implicated in the distinction between gametophyte and sporophyte programs. Deleting KNOX2 regulators in a moss produced gametophyte bodies from diploid embryos without intervening meiosis.[ref]
The catabolite activator protein is a bacterial transcription regulator whose cAMP-dependent conformation supports DNA binding and contacts with RNA polymerase at suitable promoters. Promoter geometry determines which activating contacts are possible.
A eukaryotic transcriptional activator increases productive transcription through interactions with chromatin regulators, coactivators or the transcription machinery. Its effect depends on regulatory-site occupancy and cellular context, not just the presence of a DNA-binding protein.
DNA shape readout is recognition through sequence-dependent geometry, deformability, electrostatics or hydration as well as, or instead of, direct contacts to exposed base-edge groups. Mutating a binding site can therefore change both its chemical pattern and its preferred shape.
A mammalian transcription factor involved in developmental and tumour-associated state changes, including motility and epithelial–mesenchymal transitions in experimental models.
A transcriptional regulator involved in epithelial–mesenchymal state changes and other context-dependent cellular programmes.
A yeast transcription factor regulated through several upstream open reading frames during amino acid starvation.
A mammalian stress-responsive transcription factor. Its synthesis can increase when ternary complex is limited because its leader contains regulatory upstream open reading frames.[ref]
A zinc-finger protein carrying a KRAB repression domain. Sequence recognition can recruit KAP1 and thereby initiate local silencing.
A protein that recognizes a TATA box and participates in transcription initiation complexes. Its roles are not restricted to gene promoters with an easily identifiable consensus TATA box.
A transcriptional regulator also called AP2-gamma, involved in mammalian germline specification and other developmental programmes.
A regulator participating in mouse primordial germ cell specification and epigenetic reprogramming together with BLIMP1 and TFAP2C.
A transcriptional regulator also called PRDM1; in germ-cell development it helps repress alternative somatic programmes while cooperating with other specification factors.
A Sox-family transcription factor involved in developmental regulation, including insect segmentation timing.
A homeobox transcription factor involved in posterior patterning and temporal regulation of insect segmentation.
A developmental transcription factor that supplies temporal regulation of the insect segmentation network, including the transition to single-segment periodicity in Drosophila melanogaster.
Members of related transcription-factor families involved in developmental regulation, including oscillatory feedback during vertebrate somitogenesis.
A Krüppel-like transcription factor associated with the human early pluripotency programme and used in panels of epiblast markers.
A transcription factor used in endodermal and germline developmental programmes. Its human germ-cell specification role differs from its role in the mouse germline.
A GATA-family transcription factor associated with early hypoblast development; its initial coexpression with NANOG can precede lineage resolution.
A pluripotency-associated transcription factor used with other markers to distinguish prospective epiblast from hypoblast.
A pluripotency-associated transcription factor, also called POU5F1. Expression alone does not establish that a cell is functionally pluripotent at every developmental stage.
A homeobox transcription factor used as a trophectoderm-associated regulator and marker, with species- and stage-dependent expression.
A family of DNA-binding transcription factors that can cooperate with YAP in lineage-associated gene regulation.
A transcriptional coactivator regulated by Hippo signalling; its nuclear availability influences TEAD-dependent gene expression.
An NF-kappaB-family maternal transcription factor whose ventral nuclear enrichment patterns the early Drosophila melanogaster embryo. Its name does not mean its nuclear activity is highest dorsally.
A family of developmental transcription factors; early Snail expression helps identify the ventral mesodermal domain of Drosophila melanogaster.
A developmental transcription factor; its early ventral expression in Drosophila melanogaster is useful for assaying presumptive mesodermal identity.
A T-box transcription factor promoting paraxial mesodermal identity in posterior vertebrate development.
A T-box transcription factor important in posterior and mesodermal development, commonly used with Sox2 to identify neuromesodermal progenitors.
A transcription factor involved in neural and pluripotent cell states. Coexpression with Brachyury helps identify a neuromesodermal regulatory state but does not alone demonstrate bipotency.
Articles by others on the same topic
Transcription factors are proteins that play a crucial role in the regulation of gene expression. They bind to specific sequences of DNA near the genes they regulate, thereby influencing the transcription of those genes by either promoting or inhibiting the recruitment of RNA polymerase, the enzyme responsible for synthesizing RNA from a DNA template. Transcription factors can act as activators or repressors.
