Abstract

Kaiso belongs to the zinc finger and broad-complex, tramtrack and bric-a-brac/poxvirus and zinc finger (BTB/POZ) protein family that has been implicated in tumorigenesis. Kaiso was first discovered in a complex with the armadillo-domain protein p120ctn and later shown to function as a transcriptional repressor. As p120ctn seems to relieve Kaiso-mediated repression, its altered intracellular localization in some cancer cells might result in aberrant Kaiso nuclear activity. Intriguingly, Kaiso's target genes include both methylated and sequence-specific recognition sites. The latter include genes that are modulated by the canonical Wnt (-catenin–T-cell factor) signalling pathway. Further interest in Kaiso stems from findings that its cytoplasmic versus nuclear localization is modulated by complex cues from the microenvironment.

Author affiliations

1. Molecular Cell Biology Unit, Department for Molecular Biomedical Research, VIB-Ghent University, Technologiepark 927, B-9052 Ghent, Belgium.
2. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Program in Genes and Development, University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.

Correspondence to: Frans M. van Roy¹ Email: F.Vanroy@dmbr.ugent.be

Published online 18 November 2005

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