JUMONJI Transcription Factor Family
JUMONJI (JMJ) is a nuclear protein that is critical for normal cardiovascular development by
characterizing JMJ knockout mice. The jmj mutant embryos showed heart malformations including
ventricular septal defect, noncompaction of the ventricular wall, double outlet right ventricle,
and dilated atria. All homozygous jmj mutants died soon after birth. Cardiac marker analysis by
in situ hybridization suggested that cardiomyocytes were differentiated but developmental
regulation of chamber-specific genes was defective in late stage embryos.
The jmj gene was first identified and described as a developmentally important gene in the
nervous system and subsequently in liver, spleen, and thymus development, when knockout mice
were generated in genetic backgrounds that are different from ours. During mouse embryonic
development, JMJ is widely expressed, including in the developing heart. In adult mice, it is
expressed at a higher level in heart, skeletal muscle, brain, and thymus. Continuous expression
of jmj in the heart suggests that JMJ plays an important role in both the developing and adult
heart. Although JMJ may be involved in cell growth when JMJ is overexpressed, the molecular
function of JMJ remains unknown. The deduced amino acid sequence of JMJ reveals a putative DNA
binding domain (DBD) homologous to the DBD of a DNA-binding protein family, AT-rich interaction
domain (ARID), suggesting that JMJ is a transcription factor. However, the homology of this
domain with the DBDs of other ARID family members is low, with only about 30% amino acid
identity in the putative DBD. There is an increasing number of factors that belong to an ARID
family, which show diverse functions in vertebrates, plants, and fungi.
25 predicted putative JUMONJI TF peptide,
CDS, and cDNA sequences;
blast HSP, and gene level multiple sequence alignment in
Legume TFKB.
JmjC domain sequence with alignment
and phylogeny tree.
9 JUMONJI protein
and
DNA sequences with
annotations for soybean in PlantTFDB. Most are partialsequences.
Last updated by Dr. Jeff Chen
on July 15, 2009.
