INK4A expression in leukemic cells transformed by the v-Myb oncoprotein depends on the integrity of the v-Myb leucine zipper region

The AMV v-Myb oncoprotein causes oncogenic transformation of myelomonocytic cells in vivo and in vitro. Its transforming capacity is strictly dependent upon the N-terminal DNA binding domain, the central transactivation region, and on the C-terminal domain containing a putative leucine zipper motif. While deletions in the central part of the leucine zipper region or point mutations of critical leucine residues abolish the leukemogenicity of the protein, a small deletion within the N-terminal part (deltaP mutant) preserves almost full in vitro transforming ability and only weakens the leukemogenic potential in vivo. We analyzed the gene expression profiles of ex vivo cultures transformed with either wild type or deltaP mutant of v-Myb. A few tens of genes were found to be significantly and reproducibly differentially expressed between the two cultures. Among them, the transcript of the CDKN2A gene, which is critically involved in the cell cycle progression regulation, showed higher expression in the deltaP mutant transformed cells. In mammals and also some avian species, there are two different mRNAs - ARF and INK4A transcribed from the CDKN2A locus. It is known that in chickens the locus had been rearranged in evolution and only one mRNA is transcribed. We found that this mRNA encodes both ARF and INK4A and that the INK4A protein translation starts with a GUG codon downstream of the ARF AUG initiation codon and proceeds in a different reading frame. INK4A protein thus exists in chicken cells as well and its negative regulation by v-Myb is a part of the leukemic transformation mechanism.

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