Protein / target
Forkhead box protein O1
Protein at a glance
Biological role
DNA-binding transcription factor
Strongest disease association
Hypothyroidism
Research activity
Emerging research
Derived from structured UniProt, Open Targets and literature data on this page.
Protein profile
Canonical identity and biological annotation from UniProt.
Function overview
Transcription factor that is the main target of insulin signaling and regulates metabolic homeostasis in response to oxidative stress.
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Transcription factor that is the main target of insulin signaling and regulates metabolic homeostasis in response to oxidative stress (PubMed:10358076, PubMed:12228231, PubMed:15220471, PubMed:15890677, PubMed:18356527, PubMed:19221179, PubMed:20543840, PubMed:21245099). Binds to the insulin response element (IRE) with consensus sequence 5'-TT[G/A]TTTTG-3' and the related Daf-16 family binding element (DBE) with consensus sequence 5'-TT[G/A]TTTAC-3' (PubMed:10358076). Activity suppressed by insulin (PubMed:10358076). Main regulator of redox balance and osteoblast numbers and controls bone mass (By similarity). Orchestrates the endocrine function of the skeleton in regulating glucose metabolism (By similarity). Also acts as a key regulator of chondrogenic commitment of skeletal progenitor cells in response to lipid availability: when lipids levels are low, translocates to the nucleus and promotes expression of SOX9, which induces chondrogenic commitment and suppresses fatty acid oxidation (By similarity). Acts synergistically with ATF4 to suppress osteocalcin/BGLAP activity, increasing glucose levels and triggering glucose intolerance and insulin insensitivity (By similarity). Also suppresses the transcriptional activity of RUNX2, an upstream activator of osteocalcin/BGLAP (By similarity). Acts as an inhibitor of glucose sensing in pancreatic beta cells by acting as a transcription repressor and suppressing expression of PDX1 (By similarity). In hepatocytes, promotes gluconeogenesis by acting together with PPARGC1A and CEBPA to activate the expression of genes such as IGFBP1, G6PC1 and PCK1 (By similarity). Also promotes gluconeogenesis by directly promoting expression of PPARGC1A and G6PC1 (PubMed:17024043). Important regulator of cell death acting downstream of CDK1, PKB/AKT1 and STK4/MST1 (PubMed:18356527, PubMed:19221179). Promotes neural cell death (PubMed:18356527). Mediates insulin action on adipose tissue (By similarity). Regulates the expression of adipogenic genes such as PPARG during preadipocyte differentiation and, adipocyte size and adipose tissue-specific gene expression in response to excessive calorie intake (By similarity). Regulates the transcriptional activity of GADD45A and repair of nitric oxide-damaged DNA in beta-cells (By similarity). Required for the autophagic cell death induction in response to starvation or oxidative stress in a transcription-independent manner (PubMed:20543840). Mediates the function of MLIP in cardiomyocytes hypertrophy and cardiac remodeling (By similarity). Positive regulator of apoptosis in cardiac smooth muscle cells as a result of its transcriptional activation of pro-apoptotic genes (PubMed:19483080). Regulates endothelial cell (EC) viability and apoptosis in a PPIA/CYPA-dependent manner via transcription of CCL2 and BCL2L11 which are involved in EC chemotaxis and apoptosis (PubMed:31063815)
Subcellular location
Domains and Gene Ontology detail (51)Hide
Gene Ontology
- Cchromatin
- Ccytoplasm
- Ccytosol
- Cmitochondrion
- Cnucleoplasm
- Cnucleus
- Fbeta-catenin binding
- Fchromatin binding
- Fchromatin DNA binding
- FDNA-binding transcription activator activity, RNA polymerase II-specific
- FDNA-binding transcription factor activity
- FDNA-binding transcription factor activity, RNA polymerase II-specific
Biological roles
What this protein does, drawn together from its UniProt function, Gene Ontology terms and Reactome pathways.
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Lipid & lipoprotein metabolism
- ·Transcription factor that is the main target of insulin signaling and regulates metaboli…
- ·response to fatty acid
Cell migration
- ·Transcription factor that is the main target of insulin signaling and regulates metaboli…
Transcriptional regulation
- ·Transcription factor that is the main target of insulin signaling and regulates metaboli…
- ·DNA-binding transcription activator activity, RNA polymerase II-specific
- ·DNA-binding transcription factor activity
- ·DNA-binding transcription factor activity, RNA polymerase II-specific
Apoptosis & cell death
- ·apoptotic process
- ·negative regulation of apoptotic process
- ·positive regulation of apoptotic process
- ·positive regulation of smooth muscle cell apoptotic process
Immune signalling
- ·fat cell differentiation
- ·negative regulation of fat cell differentiation
Concepts derived from UniProt GO Reactome — each badge above shows which sources supported that role.
Translational evidence
Why this target matters therapeutically, strongest evidence first. Disease associations are gene-level (via the gene that encodes this protein) and open into the full confidence synthesis; the development universe, tractability and safety annotations are target-level, from Open Targets.
Strongest disease associations · via encoding gene FOXO1
Gene-level evidence surfaced through the gene FOXO1that encodes this protein — not a direct protein–disease relationship. Ranked by Forefront's causal-directness weighting, so genetically- and clinically-evidenced diseases lead over ones that merely share the literature.
View evidence synthesis (5)Hide
The evidence agreement range shows how closely the independent evidence families agree — it is not a statistical confidence interval, and nothing here is fitted to outcome data. Derived from Open Targets evidence types under Forefront weighting; the per-type scores above show the calculation.
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Tractability
Small molecules — Emerging
Protein degraders — Emerging
View underlying tractability evidence (5)Hide
Raw Open Targets tractability assessment buckets, by modality.
Safety-related annotations
Terms indexed against this target in Open Targets' safety data, with their datasource. These are annotations, not causal claims: the direction of effect (whether activation or inhibition is implicated), species and evidence strength are not captured here, so an entry does not mean that modulating this target is known to cause that condition.
Research activity
Papers linked directly to this protein. This is the protein's own literature — descriptor-derived papers are kept separate below.
Most cited
Recent
Europe PMC papers linked directly to this protein.