Loss of TAL-1 protein activity induces premature apoptosis of Jurkat leukemic T cells upon medium depletion.

Transcriptional activation of the tal-1 gene occurs in -30% of patients with T cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and is therefore likely to be involved in human T cell leukemogenesis. However, the TAL-1 protein functional properties involved in this process have not been assessed so far. We have derived a clonal subline of the Jurkat T cell line which produced solely a mutant truncated form of TAL-1 protein. Sequencing of genomic DNA and cDNAs showed that the only transcribed tal-1 allele of this mutant subline harbored a G nucleotide insertion at codon 270. The resulting frameshift modifies TAL-1 residues 272-278 and creates a stop at codon 279. Although the deletion of the 53 carboxy-terminal residues of the TAL-1 protein did not directly affect the TAL-1 basic helix-loop-helix domain (residues 185-243), it had drastic effects on TAL-1 functional properties, since the mutant subline exhibited a dramatic decrease of protein binding activity to the TAL-1 DNA consensus sequence. Growth curves indicated that the mutant subline exhibited premature apoptosis upon medium depletion or serum reduction when compared with the parental cells. However, no difference between Jurkat and the mutant subline was observed in etoposide- or Fas/APO-1-triggered apoptosis. Stable expression of the mutant TAL-1 protein in Jurkat cells resulted in a phenotype that was similar to that of the mutant Jurkat subline, indicating that the TAL-1 mutant protein behaved like a dominant negative mutant and that the premature apoptosis of the mutant subline upon medium depletion was the consequence of the loss of TAL-1 protein activity

Erythropoietic protoporphyria in the house mouse. A recessive inherited ferrochelatase deficiency with anemia, photosensitivity, and liver disease.

A viable autosomal recessive mutation (named fch, or ferrochelatase deficiency) causing jaundice and anemia in mice arose in a mutagenesis experiment using ethylnitrosourea. Homozygotes (fch/fch) display a hemolytic anemia, photosensitivity, cholestasis, and severe hepatic dysfunction. Protoporphyrin is found at high concentration in erythrocytes, serum, and liver. Ferrochelatase activity in various tissues is 2.7-6.3% of normal. Heterozygotes (+/fch) are not anemic and have normal liver function; they are not sensitive to light exposure; ferrochelatase activity is 45-65% of normal. Southern blot analysis using a ferrochelatase cDNA probe reveals no gross deletion of the ferrochelatase gene. This is the first spontaneous form of erythropoietic protoporphyria in the house mouse. Despite the presence in the mouse of clinical and biochemical features infrequent in the human, this mutation may represent a model for the human disease, especially in its severe form