OLIG2

Oligodendrocyte lineage transcription factor 2
Identifiers
Symbols	OLIG2; BHLHB1; OLIGO2; PRKCBP2; RACK17; bHLHe19
External IDs	OMIM: 606386 MGI: 1355331 HomoloGene: 4241 GeneCards: OLIG2 Gene
Gene Ontology Molecular function • DNA binding • RNA polymerase II distal enhancer sequence-specific DNA binding transcription factor activity • protein homodimerization activity • HMG box domain binding Cellular component • nucleus • cytoplasm Biological process • negative regulation of transcription from RNA polymerase II promoter • spinal cord motor neuron differentiation • spinal cord oligodendrocyte cell fate specification • myelination • negative regulation of neuron differentiation • neuron fate commitment • positive regulation of oligodendrocyte differentiation Sources: Amigo / QuickGO
RNA expression pattern
More reference expression data
Orthologs
Species	Human	Mouse
Entrez	10215	50913
Ensembl	ENSG00000205927	ENSMUSG00000039830
UniProt	Q13516	Q9EQW6
RefSeq (mRNA)	NM_005806	NM_016967
RefSeq (protein)	NP_005797	NP_058663
Location (UCSC)	Chr 21: 34.4 – 34.4 Mb	Chr 16: 91.23 – 91.23 Mb
PubMed search	[1]	[2]

Oligodendrocyte transcription factor 2 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the OLIG2 gene.

Function

Oligodendrocyte transcription factor 2 is a basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor. Its expression is predominantly restricted to the central nervous system. The protein is an essential regulator of ventral neuroectodermal progenitor cell fate and is required for oligodendrocyte and motor neuron development.

Clinical significance

The OLIG2 gene was originally discovered as a chromosomal translocation t(14;21)(q11.2;q22) associated with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Its chromosomal location is within a region of chromosome 21 which has been suggested to play a role in learning deficits associated with Down syndrome.

OLIG2 is a universal marker of diffuse gliomas (oligodendroglioma, astrocytoma, glioblastoma, and mixed glioma). The expression in diffuse gliomas is distinct from other types of brain tumors and therefore is clinically useful as a pathologic marker for distinguishing these cancers

Further reading

• Hattori M, Fujiyama A, Taylor TD, et al. (2000). "The DNA sequence of human chromosome 21.". Nature 405 (6784): 311–9. doi:10.1038/35012518. PMID 10830953. 
• Strausberg RL, Feingold EA, Grouse LH, et al. (2003). "Generation and initial analysis of more than 15,000 full-length human and mouse cDNA sequences.". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 99 (26): 16899–903. doi:10.1073/pnas.242603899. PMC 139241. PMID 12477932. 
• Sun T, Dong H, Wu L, et al. (2003). "Cross-repressive interaction of the Olig2 and Nkx2.2 transcription factors in developing neural tube associated with formation of a specific physical complex.". J. Neurosci. 23 (29): 9547–56. PMID 14573534. 
• Fukuda S, Kondo T, Takebayashi H, Taga T (2004). "Negative regulatory effect of an oligodendrocytic bHLH factor OLIG2 on the astrocytic differentiation pathway.". Cell Death Differ. 11 (2): 196–202. doi:10.1038/sj.cdd.4401332. PMID 14576772. 
• Ota T, Suzuki Y, Nishikawa T, et al. (2004). "Complete sequencing and characterization of 21,243 full-length human cDNAs.". Nat. Genet. 36 (1): 40–5. doi:10.1038/ng1285. PMID 14702039. 
• Ligon KL, Alberta JA, Kho AT, et al. (2004). "The oligodendroglial lineage marker OLIG2 is universally expressed in diffuse gliomas.". J. Neuropathol. Exp. Neurol. 63 (5): 499–509. PMID 15198128. 
• Gerhard DS, Wagner L, Feingold EA, et al. (2004). "The status, quality, and expansion of the NIH full-length cDNA project: the Mammalian Gene Collection (MGC).". Genome Res. 14 (10B): 2121–7. doi:10.1101/gr.2596504. PMC 528928. PMID 15489334. 
• Hori Y, Gu X, Xie X, Kim SK (2006). "Differentiation of insulin-producing cells from human neural progenitor cells.". PLoS Med. 2 (4): e103. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0020103. PMC 1087208. PMID 15839736. 
• Lin YW, Deveney R, Barbara M, et al. (2005). "OLIG2 (BHLHB1), a bHLH transcription factor, contributes to leukemogenesis in concert with LMO1.". Cancer Res. 65 (16): 7151–8. doi:10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-05-1400. PMC 1681523. PMID 16103065. 
• Jakovcevski I, Zecevic N (2006). "Olig transcription factors are expressed in oligodendrocyte and neuronal cells in human fetal CNS.". J. Neurosci. 25 (44): 10064–73. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2324-05.2005. PMID 16267213. 
• Kimura K, Wakamatsu A, Suzuki Y, et al. (2006). "Diversification of transcriptional modulation: large-scale identification and characterization of putative alternative promoters of human genes.". Genome Res. 16 (1): 55–65. doi:10.1101/gr.4039406. PMC 1356129. PMID 16344560. 
• Sun T, Hafler BP, Kaing S, et al. (2006). "Evidence for motoneuron lineage-specific regulation of Olig2 in the vertebrate neural tube.". Dev. Biol. 292 (1): 152–64. doi:10.1016/j.ydbio.2005.12.047. PMID 16469306. 
• Tabu K, Ohnishi A, Sunden Y, et al. (2006). "A novel function of OLIG2 to suppress human glial tumor cell growth via p27Kip1 transactivation.". J. Cell. Sci. 119 (Pt 7): 1433–41. doi:10.1242/jcs.02854. PMID 16554441. 
• Wissmüller S, Kosian T, Wolf M, et al. (2006). "The high-mobility-group domain of Sox proteins interacts with DNA-binding domains of many transcription factors.". Nucleic Acids Res. 34 (6): 1735–44. doi:10.1093/nar/gkl105. PMC 1421504. PMID 16582099. 
• Ligon KL, Kesari S, Kitada M, et al. (2006). "Development of NG2 neural progenitor cells requires Olig gene function.". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 103 (20): 7853–8. doi:10.1073/pnas.0511001103. PMC 1472534. PMID 16682644. 
• Georgieva L, Moskvina V, Peirce T, et al. (2006). "Convergent evidence that oligodendrocyte lineage transcription factor 2 (OLIG2) and interacting genes influence susceptibility to schizophrenia.". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 103 (33): 12469–74. doi:10.1073/pnas.0603029103. PMC 1567903. PMID 16891421. 
• Ruf N, Martelli M, Weschke B, Uhlenberg B (2007). "Oligodendroglial transcription factor (OLIG1 and OLIG2) mutations are not associated with Pelizaeus-Merzbacher-like leukodystrophy.". Am. J. Med. Genet. B Neuropsychiatr. Genet. 144 (3): 365–6. doi:10.1002/ajmg.b.30434. PMID 17171653. 

External links

• OLIG2 protein, human at the US National Library of Medicine Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)

This article incorporates text from the United States National Library of Medicine, which is in the public domain.