The myb genes

The v-myb oncogene and its cellular progenitor c-myb are both DNA binding proteins capable of transcriptional activation, and are implicated in the regulation of the switch between growth and differentiation in hematopoietic cells. Studies attempting to define the oncogenic determinants of v-myb and activated c-myb genes implicate N- and/or C-terminal truncation as important; both these events appear to increase the affinity of the myb protein for DNA. Myb-like genes have been found in organisms ranging from yeast, through plants, to humans; in the more distantly related cases, only the myb DNA binding domain, situated at the N-terminus of the protein, has been conserved.