MAF family members are homologs of the musculoaponeurotic fibrosarcoma oncogene of the avian AS42 virus. MAF family members bear a well-conserved basic region and leucine zipper (b-Zip) motif that mediates DNA binding and dimer formation. The large MAF proteins, c-MAF, MAFB, and NRL also bear an acidic domain, a domain which functions in transcriptional activation (1). MAFs have been found to play key roles in development and have been especially studied in the development of the lens (2) and pancreas (3). Recently DeFalco et al from Duke University have further explored the developmental roles of MAFs and have discovered that MAFB and C-MAF also play a role in testis development (4). Because the Drosophila factor traffic jam (tj) has been shown to regulate gonad development in Drosophila (5), DeFalco et al set out to study the developmental expression of MAFs in the mouse testes during the embryonic stages of sexual differentiation. Using antibodies available from Bethyl Laboratories against MafB, MafA, and c-Maf in conjuction with Mafb-GFP transgenic mice, this group was able to characterize the localization of the MAF factors during gonadal development and analyze the origins of leydig cells which reside in the interstitial space. They report that MAFB, C-MAF, and VCAM qualify as markers of distinct cell-types that will prove to be tools useful for the understanding of gonad morphogenesis.
Antibodies against MAFs available from Bethyl Laboratories:
MafA, MafB, c-Maf
References
1. H. Motohashi, J. A. Shavit, K. Igarashi, M. Yamamoto, J. D. Engel, Nucleic Acids Res. 25, 2953 (1997).
2. H. M. Reza, K. Yasuda, Dev. Dyn. 229, 440 (2004).
3. M. E. Cerf, Eur. J. Endocrinol. 155, 671 (2006).
4. T. Defalco, S. Takahashi, B. Capel, Dev. Biol. (2011).
5. M. A. Li, J. D. Alls, R. M. Avancini, K. Koo, D. Godt, Nat. Cell Biol. 5, 994 (2003).
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