SNAI1/Snail 1, SNAI2/Snail 2 (also known as Slug), ZEB1, ZEB2, E47 and KLF8 (Kruppel-like factor 8) can bind to E-cadherin promoter and repress its transcription, whereas factors such as Twist, Goosecoid, E2.2 (also known as TCF4), homeobox protein SIX1 and FOXC2 (fork-head box protein C2) repress E-cadherin indirectly.
The independent discoveries of the homeobox in the 1983 by Walter Gehring's laboratory at the University of Basel, Switzerland, and Thomas Kaufman's laboratory at Indiana University confirmed Lewis's theory.
In 1983, the homeobox was discovered independently by researchers in two labs: Ernst Hafen, Michael Levine, and William McGinnis (in Walter Gehring's lab at the University of Basel, Switzerland) and Matthew P. Scott and Amy Weiner (in Thomas Kaufman's lab at Indiana University in Bloomington).
MKX is a member of an Iroquois (IRX) family-related class of 'three-amino acid loop extension' (TALE) atypical homeobox proteins characterized by 3 additional amino acids in the loop region between helix I and helix II of the homeodomain.
In 1983 Gehring and his collaborators (William McGinnis, Michael S. Levine, Ernst Hafen, Richard Garber, Atsushi Kuroiwa, Johannes Wirz), discovered the homeobox, a DNA segment characteristic for homeotic genes which is not only present in arthropods and their ancestors, but also in vertebrates including man.