A NATURALLY-OCCURRING TRUNCATED FORM OF FOSB THAT INHIBITS FOS JUN TRANSCRIPTIONAL ACTIVITY

Fos and Jun transcription factors are induced by a variety of extracellular signaling agents. We describe here an unusual member of the Fos family that is also induced, namely, a truncated form of FosB (DELTA-FosB) missing the C-terminal 101 amino acids of FosB. DELTA-FosB retains the dimerization and DNA-binding activities of FosB but has lost the ability in transfection assays to activate a promoter with an AP-1 site and to repress the c-fos promoter. Rather, DELTA-FosB inhibits gene activation by Jun or Jun + Fos and inhibits repression of the c-fos promoter by FosB or c-Fos, presumably by competing with full-length Fos proteins at the steps of dimerization with Jun and binding to DNA. In stimulated cells DELTA-FosB may act to limit the transcriptional effects of Fos and Jun proteins.