Two distinct portions of LTG19/ENL at 19p13 are involved in t (11 ; 19) leukemia

We previously isolated cDNA clones, MLL-a and MLL-b, derived from the 11q23 breakpoint region and detected gene rearrangements with MLL-b cDNA in infantile leukemia cell lines with 11q23 abnormalities. We also showed chimeric mRNAs between MLL and genes on partner chromosomes such as 4q21 and 19p13. In the present study, we isolated overlapping MLL cDNA clones of 11 kb and demonstrated that MLL-a and MLL-b were derived from the same gene, MLL/ALL-1/HRX. Northern analysis with an MLL cDNA probe detected different signals in t(11;19) cell lines, one being sized 10 kb in two cell ilnes, KOCL-33 and KOCL-44, and the other being 9.2 kb in the cell line, KOPN-1