POU domain genes have been described in organisms as divergent as Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila, Xenopus, zebrafish and human but have not been yet identified in plants and fungi.

Comparisons of POU domain genes across the animals suggests that the family can be divided into six major classes (POU1-POU6). Pit-1 is part of the POU1 class, Oct-1 and Oct-2 are members of POU2, while Unc-86 is a member of POU4. The six classes diverged early in animal evolution: POU1, POU3, POU4, and POU6 classes evolved before the last common ancestor of sponges and eumetazoans, POU2 evolved in the Bilatera, and POU5 appears to be unique to vertebrates.

There is a surprisingly high degree of amino acid sequence conservation (37%-42%) of POU homeodomains to the transcriptional regulator comS, the competence protein from the gram positive prokaryote Bacillus subtilis. Akin to the way that POU homeodomain regulators lead to tissue differentiation in metazoans, this transcription factor is critical for differentiation of a subpopulation of B. subtilis into a state of genetic competence.

POU proteins are eukaryotic transcription factors containing a bipartite DNA binding domain referred to as the POU domain. The acronym POU (pronounced 'pow') is derived from the names of three transcription factors, the pituitary-specific Pit-1, the octamer-binding proteins Oct-1 and Oct-2, and the neural Unc-86 from Caenorhabditis elegans. POU domain genes have been described in organisms as divergent as Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila, Xenopus, zebrafish and human but have not been yet identified in plants and fungi. The various members of the POU family have a wide variety of functions, all of which are related to the function of the neuroendocrine system and the development of an organism. Some other genes are also regulated, including those for immunoglobulin light and heavy chains (Oct-2), and trophic hormone genes, such as those for prolactin and growth hormone (Pit-1).

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