The role of transcription factors in erythroid development

Many DNA-binding proteins (transcription factors) that are expressed specifically in erythroid cells have been identified during the past 5 years, and more are yet to be discovered or fully described. These factors play key roles in the regulation of gene expression by combining to co-ordinate the synthesis of messenger RNA levels for essentially all known erythroid genes. Here we review some of the experiments describing the properties of these transcription factors, and provide a simple conceptual framework for how they might evoke either positive or negative responses by communication with the basal transcriptional apparatus (operating at the promoters of erythroid-specific genes) to either actively inhibit or amplify transcription.