p73: Proteins and Enzymes

p73 is a transcription factor that shares a significant amino acid identity with p53 and p63 (1). p73 and p63 can both activate p53-responsive genes and induce apoptosis upon over expression (2) Unlike p53, p73 is not induced by DNA damage and is not a target for inactivation by viral oncoproteins (3). Similar to p63, p73 has an additional coding region in the C-terminus (not found in p53) that can undergo complex alternative splicing giving rise to 3 splice forms (alpha, beta, and gamma) (4). Activation of p73 requires the presence of functional c-Abl. It has also be found that mutant p53 can bind to and inactivate p73 (5).