Tissue specific functions of Early B-cell factor in cellular differentiation

Abstract: This work focus on the functions by which the transcription factor Early B-cell Factor (EBF) regulate gene expression in different cell types. To address this question, gene expression analyses aimed to investigate the regulatory role of EBF in neuroblastoma cells, B-lymphocytes, adipocytes and stromal cells were performed. The addresses question is of crucial importantse for the understanding of basic concepts in the area of developmental biology, were a limited set of transcription factors are able to support the development of different cell types. This could be achieved by that different differentiation-pathways share vital target genes involved in differentiation in general, or that TFs act on different target genes in different tissues. This work strongly suggests that in the case of EBF, it is an issue of regulation of different target genes in different tissues. The work indicates that the mechanism by which this is achieved would be a combination of coordinated expression of co-factors and chromatin configuration.