Introduction

In Drosophila embryos, Cut is a Notch signaling target gene required for external sensory organ development of cells already committed to the proneural lineage. Two homologs of Cut have been found in vertebrates, Cux1 ( Cutl1) and Cux2 ( Cutl2). These proteins belongs to a family of CCAAT displacement protein (CDP)/Cut homeobox (Cux) transcription factors involved in the control of proliferation and differentiation. The Cux proteins contain four DNA binding domains, three Cut repeat (CR1, CR2 and CR3) and one Cut homeodomain (HD) and bind DNA in a sequence-specific manner acting mainly as transcriptional repressors. Cux1 has been hypothesized to function in cell-cycle control, in part by regulating the G1 cyclin inhibitors p21^Cip1 and p27^Kip1

In contrast to Cux1, the role of Cux2 remains poorly characterized, particularly in the nervous system, where it is expressed at high levels during neurogenesis. Cux2 expression also becomes elaborated in a number of tissues during organogenesis including the olfactory epithelium, branchial arch and limb bud progress zones, roof plate, motor neurons, dorsal root ganglia and urogenital tissues.

Using different bioinformatics tools we have tried to further characterize _Cux2._