The reference OMIM entry for this protein is 601512

Signal transducer and activator of transcription 6; stat6
Stat, interleukin 4-induced
Il4-stat stat6b, included
Stat6c, included
Stat6/nab2 fusion gene, included

CLONING

By searching a database of expressed sequence tags (ESTs), Quelle et al. (1995) identified a number of expressed genes in the signal transducers and activators of a transcription (STAT) family. Human and murine full-length cDNA clones were obtained and sequenced. The sequence of the human cDNA was identical to the sequence published by Hou et al. (1994) for the interleukin-4-induced transcription factor (called by them IL4 Stat), while the murine STAT6 amino acid and nucleotide sequences reported by Quelle et al. (1995) were 83% and 84% identical to the human sequences, respectively. By screening an embryonic lung fibroblast cDNA library with a wildtype STAT6 probe, Patel et al. (1998) identified 2 variant cDNAs, which they termed STAT6b and STAT6c, encoding an N-terminal 110-amino acid truncation and a 27-amino acid deletion in the SH2 domain, respectively. RNase protection analysis detected ubiquitous expression of all 3 variants with STAT6b expression greatest in spleen and STAT6c expression greatest in lung.

GENE STRUCTURE

Patel et al. (1998) characterized the genomic structure and flanking regions of the human STAT6 gene. The gene spans 19 kb and contains 23 exons.

MAPPING

Copeland et al. (1995) found that 7 mouse Stat genes map in 3 clusters, with each cluster located on a different autosome. They suggested that the Stat family arose by a tandem duplication of the ancestral Stat gene, followed by dispersion of the linked loci to different chromosomes. They mapped Stat6 and Stat2 (600556) to the distal region of chromosome 10. During an analysis of NAB2 (602381), Svaren et al. (1997) obtained the sequence adjacent to this gene by PCR of genomic DNA. They found that the STAT6 gene is located unusually close to the NAB2 gene, such that the 3-prime ends of their mRNAs overlap. Since the human NAB2 gene was previously mapped to 12q13.3-q14.1, it is likely that STAT6 maps to the same position. By fluorescence in situ hybridization, Leek et al. (1997) mapped STAT6 to 12q13.

GENE FUNCTION

Using STAT6-specific antiserum, Quelle et al. (1995) demonstrated that STAT6 is rapidly tyrosine phosphorylated following stimulation of appropriate cell lines with IL4 (147780) or IL3 (147740), but is not detectably phosphorylated following stimulation with IL2 (147680), IL12 (see IL12A; 161560), or erythropoietin (133170). In contrast, IL2, IL3, and erythropoietin induced the tyrosine phosphorylation of STAT5 (601511), while IL12 uniquely induced the tyrosine phosphorylation of STAT4 (600558). Inducible tyrosine phosphorylation of STAT6 required the membrane-distal region of the IL4 receptor alpha chain (IL4R; 147781). They found that this region of the receptor is not required for cell growth, demonstrating that STAT6 tyrosine phosphorylation does not contribute to mitogenesis. Ghilardi et al. (1996) demonstrated that along with STAT3 (102582) and STAT5, STAT6 is involved in signaling from the leptin receptor (601007) and that this signaling is defective in the db/db mouse which carries a point mutation within the leptin receptor gene. Darnell (1996) reflected on STAT3, STAT5, and STAT6 as 'fat STATs,' i.e., the involvement of these 3 STATs, but not STAT1, STAT2, and STAT4, in the physiologic action of leptin (164160) as described by Ghilardi et al. (1996). Kotanides and Reich (1996) identified a specific STAT6 DNA-binding target site in the promoter of the IL4R gene and showed that STAT6 activates I ... More on the omim web site

Subscribe to this protein entry history

Feb. 2, 2018: Protein entry updated
Automatic update: Uniprot description updated

Dec. 19, 2017: Protein entry updated
Automatic update: Uniprot description updated

March 16, 2016: Protein entry updated
Automatic update: OMIM entry 601512 was added.

Jan. 25, 2016: Protein entry updated
Automatic update: model status changed