Elk-1 ve Pea3 transkripsiyon faktörlerinin ekspresyon analizleri

Transcription factors are the proteins that regulate the gene expression via binding to the promoter or enhancer regions of DNA sequences. They perform this function alone or with other proteins in a complex, by promoting or suppressing expression. These proteins have a key role in regulation of cell growth, cell proliferation and apoptosis. Elk-1 is a member of ETS- domain transcription factor, which is activated by MAPK pathway and regulates immediately early genes such as c-fos gene, which provides neuronal survival and proliferation. Pea3 transcription factor family belongs to ETS domain transcription factor superfamily and acts as nuclear targets of signal-transduction pathways, including cell proliferation, differentiation, development and apoptosis like, the other members of ETS super-family. A wide variety of the regulatory events that involve ETS domain proteins require MAPK pathways in order to mediate the phosphorylation processes. In this study, we tried to analyze expression and function of two different transcription factors, namely Elk-1 and Pea3 from different aspects. In the first part of the study, we aimed to identify the alternative splicing forms in open reading frame of transcription factor Elk-1 in different cell lines. In the second part of the study, the purpose was to optimize expression of wildtype and mutant GST-Pea3 fusion proteins for further phosphorylation analyses.