Establishment Of Cohesion 1 Homolog 2 (ESCO2)

The C-terminal half of EFO2 possessed autoacetylation activity. RNA interference in HeLa cells showed that EFO2 was required for sister chromatid cohesion. There was a significant increase in mitotic cells with unpaired chromatids (65%) when EFO2 was depleted and a further increase in unpaired chromatids (93%) when both EFO1 and EFO2 were reduced simultaneously.The cDNA open reading frame of 1,806 nucleotides predicted a protein of 601 amino acids.

Similarity to orthologs in several vertebrates indicated evolutionary conservation. The ESCO2 protein product is a member of a conserved protein family that is required for the establishment of sister chromatid cohesion during S phase and has putative acetyltransferase activity.