CCAAT/enhancer binding protein (C/EBP), epsilon, also known as CEBPE and CHOP, is a type of ccaat-enhancer-binding protein. CEBPE is its human 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...

. It is pro-apoptotic

Apoptosis

Apoptosis is the process of programmed cell death that may occur in multicellular organisms. Biochemical events lead to characteristic cell changes and death. These changes include blebbing, cell shrinkage, nuclear fragmentation, chromatin condensation, and chromosomal DNA fragmentation...

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The protein encoded by this gene is a 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...

 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...

 which can bind as a homodimer to certain DNA regulatory regions. It can also form heterodimers with the related protein CEBP-δ

CEBPD

CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein delta is a protein that in humans is encoded by the CEBPD gene.-Interactions:CEBPD has been shown to interact with Mothers against decapentaplegic homolog 3.- External links :...

. The encoded protein may be essential for terminal differentiation and functional maturation of committed granulocyte

Granulocyte

Granulocytes are a category of white blood cells characterized by the presence of granules in their cytoplasm. They are also called polymorphonuclear leukocytes because of the varying shapes of the nucleus, which is usually lobed into three segments...

 progenitor cell

Progenitor cell

A progenitor cell is a biological cell that, like a stem cell, has a tendency to differentiate into a specific type of cell, but is already more specific than a stem cell and is pushed to differentiate into its "target" cell...

s. Mutations in this gene have been associated with specific granule deficiency, a rare congenital disorder. Multiple variants of this gene have been described, but the full-length nature of only one has been determined.