HMGA is a family of high mobility group proteins characterized by an AT-hook. They code for a "small, nonhistone, chromatin-associated protein that has no intrinsic transcriptional activity but can modulate transcription by altering the chromatin architecture".[1] Mammals have two orthologs: HMGA1 and HMGA2.
In mouse embryonic stem cells it has been demonstrated that both HMGA proteins binds uniformly to the DNA due to their AT-hook domains, with a slight preference for AT-rich regions/[2] Such regions tend to lack coding genes, an observation that argues against a direct role in transcriptional control and in agreement with previous studies, suggest that these proteins have a structural role in the chromatin, similar to histone.
Association with human traits[]
Variations in HMGA2 to have a moderate association with adult height.[3][4]
