Early transcriptional events in cell growth: the Egr family.

How eucaryotic cells respond to growth signals is a topic of considerable interest. Though much attention has focused on second messenger pathways, in recent years, progress has been made on elucidating the transcriptional events that lie more distally in the signal transduction process. Indeed, mitogens regulate the induction of several genes without the need for de novo protein synthesis. A subset of these so-called cellular immediate-early genes encode transcription factors. This review focuses on the early growth response group of zinc finger transcriptional factors. These genes are also induced by diverse agents in contexts outside of cell growth. Thus, their characterization should provide important insights into how cellular responses to diverse extracellular signals are mediated.