Basic leucine zipper transcription factor, ATF-like, also known as BATF, is a protein

Protein

Proteins are biochemical compounds consisting of one or more polypeptides typically folded into a globular or fibrous form, facilitating a biological function. A polypeptide is a single linear polymer chain of amino acids bonded together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of...

 which in humans is encoded by the BATF gene

Gene

A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...

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Function

The protein encoded by this gene is a nuclear basic leucine zipper (bZIP

BZIP domain

The Basic Leucine Zipper Domain is found in many DNA binding eukaryotic proteins. One part of the domain contains a region that mediates sequence specific DNA binding properties and the leucine zipper that is required for the dimerization of two DNA binding regions. The DNA binding region...

) protein that belongs to the AP-1/ATF

Activating transcription factor

In molecular biology, activating transcription factor, ATF, is a class of AP-1 transcription factor dimers.Genes include ATF1, ATF2, ATF3, ATF4, ATF5, ATF6, and ATF7....

 superfamily of transcription factor

Transcription factor

In molecular biology and genetics, a transcription factor is a protein that binds to specific DNA sequences, thereby controlling the flow of genetic information from DNA to mRNA...

s. The leucine zipper of this protein mediates dimerization with members of the Jun

C-jun

c-Jun is the name of a gene and protein that, in combination with c-Fos, forms the AP-1 early response transcription factor. It was first identified as the Fos-binding protein p39 and only later rediscovered as the product of the c-jun gene. It is activated through double phosphorylation by the...

 family of proteins. This protein is thought to be a negative regulator of AP-1/ATF transcriptional events.

Mice without the BATF gene (BATF knockout mice

Knockout mouse

A knockout mouse is a genetically engineered mouse in which researchers have inactivated, or "knocked out," an existing gene by replacing it or disrupting it with an artificial piece of DNA...

) lacked a type of inflammatory immune cell (Th17

T helper 17 cell

T helper 17 cells are a subset of T helper cells producing interleukin 17 discovered in 2007. They are considered developmentally distinct from Th1 and Th2 cells and excessive amounts of the cell are thought to play a key role in autoimmune disease such as multiple sclerosis , but also...

) and were resistant to conditions that normally induces an autoimmune condition similar to multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms...

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Interactions

BATF (gene) has been shown to interact

Protein-protein interaction

Protein–protein interactions occur when two or more proteins bind together, often to carry out their biological function. Many of the most important molecular processes in the cell such as DNA replication are carried out by large molecular machines that are built from a large number of protein...

 with IFI35

IFI35

Interferon-induced 35 kDa protein is a protein that in humans is encoded by the IFI35 gene.-Interactions:IFI35 has been shown to interact with NMI and BATF....

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