Biological consequences of the BCR/ABL fusion gene in humans and mice.

The BCR/ABL fusion gene is pathognomonic for the human disease chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML). CML is a malignant myeloproliferative disorder that is characterised at the cytogenetic level by the Philadelphia (Ph) translocation between chromosomes 9 and 22. At the molecular level this results in the juxtaposition of parts of the BCR and ABL genes to form a fusion gene (that is, BCR/ABL). The p210 protein tyrosine kinase product of BCR/ABL is presumed to be responsible for the biological and clinical features of CML in humans. A vast amount of work has been done on the molecular biology and biochemistry of p210 (reviewed in ) but this article is concerned with the cell biological consequences of p210 expression.