The erythroid transcription factor NF-E2 is an obligate heterodimer composed of two different subunits (p45 and p18), each containing a basic region-leucine zipper DNA binding domain, and it plays a critical role in erythroid differentiation as an enhancer-binding protein for expression of the -globin gene. We show here that dimethyl sulfoxide treatment of wild-type murine erythroleukemia cells, but not a mutant clone of dimethyl sulfoxide-resistant cells, increases NF-E2 activity significantly, which involves both up-regulation of DNA binding and transactivation activities. Both activities were reduced markedly by treatment of cells with 2-aminopurine but not by genistein. Activation of the Ras-Raf-MAP kinase signaling cascade increased NF-E2 activity significantly, but this was suppressed when MafK was overexpressed. Domain analysis revealed an activation domain in the NH 2 -terminal region of p45 and a suppression domain in the basic region-leucine zipper of MafK. These findings indicate that induction of NF-E2 activity is essential for erythroid differentiation of murine erythroleukemia cells, and serine/threonine phosphorylation may be involved in this process. In addition, they also suggest that a MafK homodimer can suppress transcription, not only by competition for the DNA binding site, but also by direct inhibition of transcription. Hence, MafK may function as an active transcription repressor.The erythroid transcription factor NF-E2 is present in extracts of erythroid cell lines (1, 2) and has been shown to be a heterodimer formed between the two basic region-leucine zipper (b-zip) 1 proteins, i.e. the p45 and the p18 subunits. p45, which together with the Drosophila cap'n-collar (CNC) protein defines a b-zip subfamily, is expressed in hematopoietic cells of the erythroid, megakaryocytic, and mast cell lineages (1), whereas p18 is one of the small Maf family proteins including MafK 2 (1-4), and its expression is not restricted to hematopoietic cells (5). Involvement of NF-E2 in erythroid cell differentiation of mouse erythroleukemia (MEL) cells has been suggested by its role as an enhancer-binding protein for expression of the -globin gene, by the lack of -globin mRNA expression in a MEL cell line (CB3) devoid of NF-E2 protein as a result of integration of Friend viral sequences within the p45 NF-E2 gene locus (6), and by the restoration of -globin mRNA by forced expression of p45 cDNA in these cells (6, 7). It has also been found that NF-E2⅐DNA binding increases during erythroid differentiation of MEL cells (8 -10). These results suggest NF-E2 to be one of the key transcription factors that regulate erythroid differentiation of MEL cells. Unexpectedly, targeted disruption of the p45 gene in mice showed essentially no abnormality in erythropoiesis (11,12). It is possible in these conditions, however, that p45-related b-zip factors, such as Nrf1 (13), or Nrf2 (14), may compensate for deficient NF-E2 activity.Previous studies showed that p45 can be phosphorylated by a cAMP-dependent protein kinase in...