Definition
Activating protein-1 (AP-1) is a transcription factor usually consisting of a member of the Jun family and a member of the Fos or ATF family of proto-oncogenes. AP-1 is activated in response to cytokines, growth factors, and stress factors during cell differentiation, tumor formation, or mitogenic response.
Characteristics
Much of our present knowledge about transcription factors comes from the discovery and study of the activating protein-1 (AP-1) family. AP-1 (and the transcription factor NFκB) has served to detect one of the decisive DNA binding motifs required for gene regulation by a variety of extracellular signals including growth factors, cytokines, tumor promoters, such as the phorbol ester TPA (12-O-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate), and carcinogens, for example, UV irradiation and other DNA damaging agents. One of its members, the heterodimer Fos-Jun, was found in the mid-1980s as a protein complex containing the viral oncogeneproduct Fos without a clue of its...
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Weston CR, Davis RJ (2002) The JNK signal transduction pathway. Curr Opin Genet Dev 12:14–21
Hess J, Angel P, Schorpp-Kistner M (2004) AP-1 subunits: quarrel and harmony among siblings. J Cell Sci 117:5965–5973
Shaulian E, Karin M (2002) AP-1 as a regulator of cell life and death. Nat Cell Biol 4:E131–E136
Wagner EF (2001) AP-1 reviews. Oncogene 20:2333–2497
Eferl R, Wagner EF (2003) AP-1: a double-edged sword in tumorigenesis. Nat Rev Cancer 3:859–868
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this entry
Cite this entry
Angel, P., Hess, J. (2011). AP-1. In: Schwab, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cancer. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_341
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_341
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-16482-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-16483-5
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences