SIX2 Antibody recognizes endogenous levels of total SIX2 protein.

Polyclonal antibodies are produced by immunizing animals with a synthetic peptide corresponding to residues surrounding Pro249 of human SIX2 protein. Antibodies are purified by peptide affinity chromatography.

Sine oculis homeobox (SIX) proteins belong to a family of evolutionarily conserved transcription factors discovered in Drosophila mutant screens for embryonic eye development genes (1-3). The prototypical family member (sine oculis, so) was named for eyeless embryos carrying mutations in a gene highly conserved among vertebrates, including humans (SIX1) (4). A total of six family members (SIX1-6) have been identified in vertebrates. Each SIX protein contains a homeobox nucleic acid recognition domain (HD) with a DNA-binding helix-turn-helix motif and an adjacent SIX domain, which may be involved in regulating protein-protein interactions (5). In addition to their critical functions during embryonic organogenesis, research studies suggest that SIX proteins play additional roles in postnatal cell cycle regulation, with potentially important implications in tumorigenesis (6,7).
SIX2 is functionally important for the development of multiple tissues, notably the kidney, where it has been shown that SIX2 functions downstream of HOXA2 to maintain metanephric mesenchymal progenitors in an undifferentiated state, allowing for self-renewal of renal progenitor cells (8-10). Aberrant expression of SIX2 has likewise been identified as a potential contributing factor in the development of renal malignancies, including Wilms' Tumor (11-13). More recently, SIX2 has been shown to promote the maturation and maintenance of pancreatic beta cells (14,15).