Construction and Functional Analysis of Novel Dominant-Negative Mutant of Human SOX18 Protein

---

M. Milivojevic, I. Petrovic^*, N. Kovacevic-Grujicic, J. Popovic, M. Mojsin, and M. Stevanovic

Institute of Molecular Genetics and Genetic Engineering, University of Belgrade, Vojvode Stepe 444a, PO BOX 23, 11010 Belgrade, Serbia; fax: (+) 381-11397-5808; E-mail: isidorapetrovic@imgge.bg.ac.rs

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received June 26, 2013

---

SOX18 transcription factor plays important roles in a range of biological processes such as vasculogenesis, hair follicle development, lymphangiogenesis, atherosclerosis, and angiogenesis. In this paper we present the generation of a novel SOX18 dominant-negative mutant (SOX18DN) encoding truncated SOX18 protein that lacks a trans-activation domain. We show that both wild-type SOX18 (SOX18wt) and truncated human SOX18 proteins are able to bind to their consensus sequence in vitro. Functional analysis confirmed that SOX18wt has potent trans-activation properties, while SOX18DN displays dominant-negative effect. We believe that these SOX18wt and SOX18DN expression constructs could be successfully used for further characterization of the function of this protein.

---

KEY WORDS: SOX18, dominant-negative, transcription factor, truncated protein

DOI: 10.1134/S0006297913110096

---