Identifying normal genes that form heterodimers with ABF-1 class II bHLH protiens using a yeast two-hybrid screen.

ABF-1 gene products are required for normal B-cell development within mammals. The exact role that ABF-1 plays in B-cell development is not completely understood due to the complexity of the mammalian immune system. Caenorhabditis elegans contains a gene that has a similar nucleotide sequence as the human ABF-1 gene. However these simole soil nematodes lack a characterized immune system. Previous experiments have shown that human and nematode ABF-1 gene products are functionally similar to one another in that both proteins are able to form y functional heterodimers.with mammalian E2A proteins. This suggests that ABF-1/E2A gene mediated transcription is highly conserved between that of invertebrates and vertebrates. Using a two-hybrid screen, ABF- 1 will be used as bait to search for interacting proteins