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Mol. Cell. Biol., Nov 1997, 6265-6273, Vol 17, No. 11
AJ Capobianco, P Zagouras, CM Blaumueller, S Artavanis-Tsakonas and JM Bishop
The Notch genes of Drosophila melanogaster and vertebrates encode
transmembrane receptors that help determine cell fate during development.
Although ligands for Notch proteins have been identified, the signaling
cascade downstream of the receptors remains poorly understood. In human
acute lymphoblastic T-cell leukemia, a chromosomal translocation damages
the NOTCH1 gene. The damage apparently gives rise to a constitutively
activated version of NOTCH protein. Here we show that a truncated version
of NOTCH1 protein resembling that found in the leukemic cells can transform
rat kidney cells in vitro. The transformation required cooperation with the
E1A oncogene of adenovirus. The transforming version of NOTCH protein was
located in the nucleus. In contrast, neither wild-type NOTCH protein nor a
form of the truncated protein permanently anchored to the plasma membrane
produced transformation in vitro. We conclude that constitutive activation
of NOTCH similar to that found in human leukemia can contribute to
neoplastic transformation. Transformation may require that the NOTCH
protein be translocated to the nucleus. These results sustain a current
view of how Notch transduces a signal from the surface of the cell to the
nucleus.
Copyright © 1997, American Society for Microbiology
Neoplastic transformation by truncated alleles of human NOTCH1/TAN1 and NOTCH2
The George Williams Hooper Foundation, University of California, San Francisco, 94143-0552, USA. capo@cgl.ucsf.edu
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