Ets Variant 4 (ETV4)

Higashino et al. (1993) cloned a cDNA for a protein that binds to the adenovirus E1A enhancer by screening a HeLa cell expression library with an oligomer for the E1AF DNA sequence. The cDNA encodes a 462-amino acid protein that showed sequence similarity within the ETS domain, a region required for sequence-specific DNA binding by members of the ETS oncogene family. E1AF is about 94% identical to the mouse PEA3 protein (polyomavirus enhancer activator-3). Northern blot analysis detected a 2.5-kb mRNA in HeLa cells whose levels increased during the early phase of adenovirus infection.

E1AF can activate the promoters of various matrix metalloproteinases, genes whose expression is associated with tumor cell invasion and metastasis, by 10 to 20 fold.