The PEA3 group of transcription factors belongs to the ets family and is composed of 3 known members, PEA3, ERM and ER81, which are more than 95% identical within the DNAbinding ETS domain and exhibit 50% aa identity overall. Recently, transgenic mice bearing the c-erbB-2/neu oncogene have been shown to over-express PEA3 mRNA in mammary adenocarcinomas, suggesting a role for this gene family in mammary tumorigenesis. In the present work we characterized the mRNA expression levels of PEA3-group genes in a series of human epithelial breast cell lines. Each of the 3 genes was highly expressed in normal human HMEC 1001-7 and HMEC 219-4 cells. In breast-cancer cell lines, the 3 genes were highly expressed in the ER 2 MDA-MB-436, MDA-MB-330, MDA-MB-231 and BT-20 cell lines, but not in the ER 1 MDA-MB-134-VI and ZR-75-1 cells. In an attempt to characterize the PEA3-group proteins in breast-cancer cells, we first produced and characterized specific antibodies against each of these 3 proteins. The anti-ERM and anti-ER81 antibodies recognized specific strong bands at approximately 72 kDa and 62 kDa, corresponding to ERM and ER81, respectively, in MDA-MB-231 and Hs-578T cells expressing significant levels of the 3 mRNAs. No protein was detected in MCF-7 cells expressing low levels of mRNA for PEA3-group-family genes, or in ZR-75-1 cells, where mRNA was undetectable by Northern blot. Although in vitro-translated PEA3 is specifically immunoprecipitated by anti-PEA3 anti-serum, we were unable to immunoprecipitate PEA3 protein from MDA-MB-231 and Hs-578T cells. In order to study the transcription factor activity of ERM, PEA3 and ER81 proteins in mammarycancer cells, we tested their ability to transactivate a reporter plasmid containing 3 Ets-binding sites, and were able to show that, in all the breast-cancer cells tested, transfected ERM, PEA3 and ER81 are able to transactivate. Although the target genes of the PEA3 group of transcription factors in breastcancer cells have yet to be determined, these genes have a potential role in the regulation of growth and the progression of human breast cancer.