Ventral Anterior Homeobox Protein 2 (VAX2)

The subcellular localization of Vax2 was controlled by phosphorylation of ser170, downstream from its homeodomain, and this modification resulted in exclusion of Vax2 from the nucleus. Expression of a nonphosphorylatable, constitutively nuclear Vax2 in the chick optic vesicle resulted in constitutive repression of Pax6 and led to formation of an eyeless embryo.

To provide a more detailed characterization of the DRES93 cDNA, Barbieri et al. (1999) isolated the human, murine, and Xenopus full-length transcripts. Sequence analysis showed that this gene is highly similar to the VAX1 gene, and it was accordingly named VAX2. By in situ hybridization, Barbieri et al. (1999) found that the VAX2 gene was almost exclusively expressed in the ventral portion of the retina during development.