Ubiquitination is a post-translational mechanism of control of diverse cellular processes. We focus here on the ubiquitin ligase Fbw7, a recently identified hematopoietic tumor suppressor that can target for degradation several important oncogenes including Notch1, c-Myc and cyclin E. We have generated conditional Fbw7 knock-out animals and inactivated the gene in hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) and their differentiated progeny. Deletion of Fbw7 specifically and rapidly affects the HSC compartment in a cell-autonomous manner. Fbw7-/- HSCs show defective maintenance of quiescence, leading to impaired self-renewal and a severe loss of competitive repopulating capacity. Furthermore, Fbw7-/- HSC are unable to colonize the thymus leading to a profound depletion of T cell progenitors. Deletion of Fbw7 in bone marrow stem cells and progenitors leads to the stabilization of c-Myc, a transcription factor previously implicated in HSC self-renewal. On the other hand, neither Notch1 nor cyclin E are stabilized in the bone marrow of Fbw7 deficient mice. Genome-wide transcriptome studies of Fbw7-/- HSC and hematopoietic progenitors indicate that Fbw7 controls, through the regulation of HSC cell cycle entry, the global transcriptional signature that is associated with the quiescent, self-renewing HSC phenotype.
Control of hematopoietic stem cell quiescence by the E3 ubiquitin ligase Fbw7.
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View SamplesRecurrent somatic mutations in TET2 and in other genes that regulate the epigenetic state have been identified in patients with myeloid malignancies and in other cancers. However, the in vivo effects of Tet2 loss have not been delineated. We report here that Tet2 loss leads to increased stem-cell self-renewal and to progressive stem cell expansion. Consistent with human mutational data, Tet2 loss leads to myeloproliferation in vivo, notable for splenomegaly and monocytic proliferation. In addition, haploinsufficiency for Tet2 confers increased self-renewal and myeloproliferation, suggesting that the monoallelic TET2 mutations found in most TET2-mutant leukemia patients contribute to myeloid transformation. This work demonstrates that absent or reduced Tet2 function leads to enhanced stem cell function in vivo and to myeloid transformation.
Tet2 loss leads to increased hematopoietic stem cell self-renewal and myeloid transformation.
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