芳香烃受体核转位蛋白(aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator,ARNT)是碱性螺旋-环.螺旋转录因子超家族中新发现的PAS亚家族的成员之一。它是体内许多bHLH-PAS蛋白共同的专性配偶体,可以与芳香烃受体、低氧诱导因子、果蝇SIM蛋白等形成异二聚体并介导许多信号转导过程,从而使个体对环境污染物(如二恶英)、低氧状态等外界因素的改变产生相应的生物学效应,本文就ARNT的基本结构及其在体内的主要生理功能等方面作一综述。
The aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator (ARNT) belongs to the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH)-Per-ARNT-Sim (PAS) family of transcription factors, which, in addition to the bHLH motif, contains a PAS region of homology. It contains a basic DNA binding sequence adjacent to a helix-loop-helix dimerization domain. ARNT binds to DNA in the form of a heterodimer with the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), hypoxia- inducible factor 1 α (HIF-1 ,张万起:), SIM proteins, and mediates a variety of signal transduction such as environmental pollutants (dioxin) and hypoxia, respectively. ARNT controls critical developmental and metabolic processes.