The primary function of the UBE2T ubiquitin conjugase is in the monoubiquitination of the FANCI-FANCD2 heterodimer, a central step in the Fanconi anemia (FA) pathway. Genetic inactivation of UBE2T is responsible for the phenotypes of FANCT patients; however, a FANCT patient carrying a maternal duplication and a paternal deletion in the UBE2T loci displayed normal peripheral blood counts and UBE2T protein levels in B-lymphoblast cell lines. To test whether reversion by recombination between UBE2T AluYa5 elements could have occurred in the patient's hematopoietic stem cells despite the defects in homologous recombination (HR) in FA cells, we constructed HeLa cell lines containing the UBE2T AluYa5 elements and neighboring intervening sequences flanked by fluorescent reporter genes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFgain-of-function mutation is the most common mutation found in patients with juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia and DNMT3A loss occurs in over 20% of acute myeloid leukemia patients. We studied the combined effect of both gain-of-function mutation (D61Y) and haploinsufficiency on mouse hematopoiesis, the presence of which has been described in both juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia and acute myeloid leukemia patients. Double mutant mice rapidly become moribund relative to any of the other genotypes, which is associated with enlargement of the spleen and an increase in white blood cell counts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJuvenile myelomonocytic leukemia is a childhood malignancy that lacks effective chemotherapies and thus has poor patient outcomes. PI3K p110δ has been found to promote hyperproliferation of cells expressing mutant Shp2. In this study, we tested the efficacy of a PI3Kδ inhibitor in mice expressing the Shp2 gain-of-function mutation, E76K.
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