title: Identification of a novel splice variant of AML1b in ovarian cancer patients conferring loss of wild-type tumor suppressive functions.
abstract: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) 1 is often disrupted by chromosomal translocations generating oncogenic fusions in human leukemias. However, its role in epithelial cancers has not been extensively investigated. Herein, we show a marked accumulation of AML1 transcripts including a high frequency of a novel alternatively spliced AML1b transcript lacking exon 6 (AML1b(Del179-242)) in ovarian cancer patients. The increases in RNA transcripts for total wild-type AML1 and AML1b(Del179-242) are associated with poor patient outcomes. We have shown that although both wild-type AML1b and AML1b(Del179-242) are localized to nuclear speckles, AML1b(Del179-242) was observed to have dramatically reduced transactivation potential with the plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 promoters and behaved as a weak dominant negative of wild-type AML1b. Wild-type AML1b was found to inhibit the growth of immortalized ovarian epithelial cells (T29) decreasing colony-forming ability. Moreover, we have identified a novel function of AML1b where it inhibits ovarian cell migration. In contrast, AML1b(Del179-242) has lost the ability to inhibit both ovarian cell proliferation and migration indicating that the functional effects observed with wild-type AML1b are dependent on amino acids 179-242. Collectively, these studies suggest that deregulated alternative splicing of AML1b transcripts may potentially contribute to the pathophysiology of ovarian cancers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Therapeutics, MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas, Houston, TX, USA. mnanjund@mdanderson.org
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nanjundan
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schmandt
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Smith-McCune
authors.forename: G B
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Mills
mesh_terms: D017398:Alternative Splicing; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D001483:Base Sequence; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D002465:Cell Movement; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; D003114:Colony-Forming Units Assay; D050676:Core Binding Factor Alpha 2 Subunit / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D018284:Cystadenocarcinoma, Serous / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D005091:Exons / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009375:Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D015996:Survival Rate; D015533:Transcriptional Activation; D025521:Tumor Suppressor Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D050676:Core Binding Factor Alpha 2 Subunit; D025521:Tumor Suppressor Proteins