V-Ets Erythroblastosis Virus E26 Oncogene Homolog (ERG)

Two regions of the predicted 363-residue protein share about 40% and 70% homology with the 5-prime and 3-prime regions of the viral Ets oncogene, respectively, suggesting that ERG belongs to the ETS oncogene family.ERG gene contains at least 17 exons and spans 282 kb. The 5-prime end contains a major CpG island. A region upstream of exon 1 and a 1-kb region within intron 1 contain multiple transcription factor-binding sites.

ERG2 is a nuclear phosphoprotein that binds purine-rich sequences. With a half-life of 21 hours, it is considerably more stable than the short-lived ETS1 and ETS2 proteins. Like other ETS proteins, ERG2 is a sequence-specific DNA-binding protein and is expressed at higher levels in early myeloid cells than in mature lymphoid cells.