This intronless gene encompasses 4789 base pairs.

The mRNA transcript is 4789 base pairs.

The mRNA encodes a 47.3 kDa protein consisting of 474 amino acids.

SOX4 appears to be fairly ubiquitously expressed at low levels in most adult tissues, with high levels found mostly in T lymphocytes. Its expression is up-regulated in many cancer types relative to benign tissue of origin (Rhodes et al., 2004).

Nucleus.

SOX4 is a member of the class I SRY-related HMG-box family of transcription factors. It has been shown to be involved in determination of cell fate and the regulation of embryonic development of many organ systems including heart (Restivo et al., 2006; Schilham et al., 1996), pancreas (Lioubinski et al., 2003; Wilson et al., 2005) and brain (Cheung et al., 2000; Hong and Saint-Jeannet, 2005). SOX4 has been shown to be a transcriptional activator in lymphocytes (van de Wetering et al., 1993) and facilitates B and T cell differentiation (Schilham et al., 1996; Schilham et al., 1997). SOX4 gene expression is up-regulated in many tumor types, with experimental evidence suggesting that this contributes to cellular transformation (Liu et al., 2006; Shin et al., 2004), control of apoptosis (Liu et al., 2006; Pramoonjago et al., 2006; Aaboe et al., 2006; Ahn et al., 2002) and/or a metastatic phenotype (Liao et al., 2008; Tavazoie et al., 2008).

SOX4 is part of a family of Sox transcription factors that share significant homology. SOX4 is in the Group C Sox homology group that includes SOX11, SOX22 and SOX24. SOX4 shares the highest degree of homology with SOX11 (Bowles et al., 2000).