Mechanism of transcriptional repression by TEL/RUNX1 fusion protein.

Human chromosomal translocation t(12;21)(p12;q22) is one of the most frequent rearrangement in human leukemia, and produces the TEL/RUNX1 fusion protein. The TEL/RUNX1 fusion protein creates a transcriptional repressor that interferes in dominant fashion with RUNX1-dependent transactivation. Here, we demonstrate that the repressor activity of TEL/ RUNX1 differs from that of TEL, even though both TEL and TEL/RUNX1 interact with the nuclear hormone co-repressor (N-CoR) and histone deacetylase (mSin3A) in vivo.