Mutations and aberrant DNA methylation of the PROX1 gene in hematologic malignancies.

The homeobox gene PROX1 is related to the Drosophila prospero gene, which is expressed in the developing central nervous system and lens-secreting cone cells. We found that the PROX1 gene had missense and nonsense mutations in 4 of 29 hematologic cell lines analyzed. Decreased mRNA expression was also observed in half of these cell lines by RT-PCR.