The Ikaros family protein Eos associates with C-terminal-binding protein corepressors

Eos is a zinc finger transcription factor of the Ikaros family. It binds typical GGGAA Ikaros recognition sites in DNA and functions as a transcriptional repressor. Here we show that Eos associates with the corepressor C-terminal-binding protein (CtBP). CtBP has previously been shown to bind Pro-X-Asp-Leu-Ser (PXDLS) motifs in several DNA-binding proteins. We note that Eos contains a related motif PEDLA, and we demonstrate that CtBP can bind this site weakly but that it also contacts additional regions of Eos. Consistent with this finding, mutation of the PEDLA motif does not negate CtBP binding or CtBP-mediated repression by Eos. CtBP has previously been shown to bind to a PXDLS-type motif in Ikaros, and we show that another Ikaros-related protein TRPS1 also contains a PXDLS CtBP contact motif within its repression domain. We conclude that several Ikaros family proteins utilize CtBP corepressors to inhibit gene expression.