Bmi1 loss produces an increase in astroglial cells and a decrease in neural stem cell population and proliferation.

The polycomb transcriptional repressor Bmi1 promotes cell cycle progression, controls cell senescence, and is implicated in brain development. Loss of Bmi1 leads to a decreased brain size and causes progressive ataxia and epilepsy. Recently, Bmi1 was shown to control neural stem cell (NSC) renewal.

Bmi1 is essential for cerebellar development and is overexpressed in human medulloblastomas.

Overexpression of the polycomb group gene Bmi1 promotes cell proliferation and induces leukaemia through repression of Cdkn2a (also known as ink4a/Arf) tumour suppressors. Conversely, loss of Bmi1 leads to haematological defects and severe progressive neurological abnormalities in which de-repression of the ink4a/Arf locus is critically implicated. Here, we show that Bmi1 is strongly expressed in proliferating cerebellar precursor cells in mice and humans.

Bmi-1 regulation of INK4A-ARF is a downstream requirement for transformation of hematopoietic progenitors by E2a-Pbx1.

Loss-of-function alterations of INK4A are commonly observed in lymphoid malignancies, but are consistently absent in pre-B cell leukemias induced by the chimeric oncoprotein E2a-Pbx1 created by t(1;19) chromosomal translocations. We report here that experimental induction of E2a-Pbx1 enhances expression of BMI-1, a lymphoid oncogene whose product functions as a transcriptional repressor of the INK4A-ARF tumor suppressor locus. Bmi-1-deficient hematopoietic progenitors are resistant to transformation by E2a-Pbx1; however, the requirement for Bmi-1 is alleviated in cells deficient for both Bmi-1 and INK4A-ARF.

Cooperative action of Tbx2 and Nkx2.5 inhibits ANF expression in the atrioventricular canal: implications for cardiac chamber formation.

During heart development, chamber myocardium forms locally from the embryonic myocardium of the tubular heart. The atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) gene is specifically expressed in this developing chamber myocardium and is one of the first hallmarks of chamber formation. We investigated the regulatory mechanism underlying this selective expression.

The T-box repressors TBX2 and TBX3 specifically regulate the tumor suppressor gene p14ARF via a variant T-site in the initiator.

The murine tumor suppressor p19(ARF) (p14(ARF) in humans) is thought to fulfill an important protective role in preventing primary cells from oncogenic transformation via its action in the p53 pathway. Several disease-implicated regulators of p19(ARF) are known to date, among which are the T-box genes TBX2, which resides on an amplicon in primary breast tumors, and TBX3, which is mutated in the human developmental disorder Ulnar-Mammary syndrome. Here we identify a variant T-site, matching 13 of 20 nucleotides of a consensus T-site, as the essential TBX2/TBX3-binding element in the human p14(ARF) promoter.

TBX-3, the gene mutated in Ulnar-Mammary Syndrome, is a negative regulator of p19ARF and inhibits senescence.

Prolonged culturing of rodent cells in vitro activates p19(ARF) (named p14(ARF) in man), resulting in a p53-dependent proliferation arrest known as senescence. The p19(ARF)-Mdm2-p53 pathway also serves to protect primary cells against oncogenic transformation. We have used a genetic screen in mouse neuronal cells, conditionally immortalized by a temperature-sensitive mutant of SV40 large T antigen, to identify genes that allow bypass of senescence.