The emerging role of the myeloid Elf-1 like transcription factorin hematopoiesis

MEF (myeloid Elf-1 like factor) is a member of the ETS family of transcription factors (TF) with transcriptional activating properties. ETS proteins have been implicated in widely divergent physiological and pathological processes (such as development and oncogenesis). MEF is expressed in non-hematopoietic and hematopoietic (lymphoid and myeloid) tissues, and after generating MEF-deficient mice by homologous recombination, we have studied its role in lymphopoiesis (Immunity 17 (2002), 437). MEF plays a critical role in NK and NK-T cell development and the constitutive expression of perforin by NK cells. MEF interacts with other TFs such as AML1 (Runx1) and with the cyclin A/cdk2 kinase complex. In this review, we discuss the biology of MEF in the context of the other members of this family of transcriptional regulators.