Polycomb protein Embryonic Ectoderm Development (EED) is a WD repeat containing member of the Polycomb-group (PcG) family. The EED protein mediates repression of gene activity through histone deacetylation, and may act as a specific regulator of integrin function. EED is an established transcriptional repressor, as a novel NIPP1 interactor. NIPP1 only interacted with full-length EED, whereas two EED interaction domains were mapped to the central and COOH-terminal thirds of NIPP1. In mammalian cells, EED is present as four distinct isoforms, which are believed to be produced by utilizing four distinct, in-frame translation start sites in a common EED mRNA. The extra sex combs (esc) gene of Drosophila and its mammalian homologue embryonic ect