'Nuclear' oncogenes convert extracellular stimuli into changes in the genetic program.

ABSTRACT

Recent discoveries have advanced our understanding of oncogene action transcription factors are encoded by cellular (nuclear) oncogenes and the activity of transcription factors is modulated in response to extracellular stimuli. Moreover, the nuclear oncoproteins appear to represent the gene-proximal ends of a network of cellular oncoproteins that link extracellular stimuli to the transcriptional machinery and thus to the program of genes a cell will express.