K-Acetyltransferase 2A (KAT2A)

KAT2A, or GCN5, is a histone acetyltransferase (HAT) that functions primarily as a transcriptional activator. It also functions as a repressor of NF-kappa-B by promoting ubiquitination of the NF-kappa-B subunit RELA in a HAT-independent manner.

Full-length cDNAs, designated TADA2L and GCN5L2, were isolated from testis. The GCN5L2 predicted 427-amino acid protein is 43% identical to the yeast protein. GCN5L2 was shown to function experimentally as an adaptor in a human cell line. Yang et al. (1996) also cloned GCN5L2; their clone had an additional 49 N-terminal amino acids. Yang et al. (1996) reported that GCN5L2 has significant histone acetyltransferase activity with core histones, but not with nucleosome core particles.