Cell
Volume 66, Issue 4, 23 August 1991, Pages 649-661
Journal home page for Cell

Article
TAN-1, the human homolog of the Drosophila Notch gene, is broken by chromosomal translocations in T lymphoblastic neoplasms

https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-8674(91)90111-BGet rights and content

Abstract

Previously we described joining of DNA in the β T cell receptor gene to DNA of an uncharacterized locus in a t(7;9)(q34;q34.3) chromosomal translocation from a case of human T lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). We now show that the locus on chromosome 9 contains a gene highly homologous to the Drosophila gene Notch. Transcripts of the human gene, for which we propose the name TAN-1, and its murine counterpart are present in many normal human fetal and adult mouse tissues, but are most abundant in lymphoid tissues. In t(7;9)(q34;q34.3) translocations from three cases of T-ALL, the breakpoints occur within 100 bp of an intron in TAN-1, resulting in truncation of TAN-1 transcripts. These observations suggest that TAN-1 may be important for normal lymphocyte function and that alteration of TAN-1 may play a role in the pathogenesis of some T cell neoplasms.

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    Present address: Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305.

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