Ikaros 3 Background Information Ikaros family members, including Ikaros and Helios, are nuclear factors that colocalize with DNA replication machinery components in higher-order chromatin structures and respond to signaling events, such as T-cell activation. Helios and Ikaros bind to similar DNA sequences and they function as hemopoietic-specific transcription factors. Members of the Ikaros family contain zinc-finger domains that are involved in DNA-binding and in the formation of homodimers and heterodimers between Ikaros family members. Aiolos, also known as zinc finger protein Ikaros 3 or ZNFN1A3, is a 509 amino acid nuclear protein. Aiolos plays an important role in lymphocyte differentiation regulation and, via this role, mutated Aiolos is implicated in leukemogenesis. Expressed in most tissues, Aiolos is predominantly found in spleen, thymus and peripheral blood leukocytes. Aiolos contains six C2H2-type zinc fingers, a motif commonly involved in nucleotide binding. Aiolos interacts with Ikaros family members, including Eos and Pegasus.
