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A friendly signal

Nature Genetics volume 23, pages 128–130 (1999)Cite this article

Factors involved in the development and progression of leukaemia have provided a wealth of information about the genes and pathways regulating normal cellular growth, in addition to the abnormal processes associated with malignant transformation. The study of RNA tumour viruses or retroviruses has led to many of the seminal observations in this field. These include the characterization of oncogenes carried or activated by these viruses, and secondary genetic changes contributing to the oncogenic process. Derek Persons and colleagues now provide a new installment in these studies, in working out how the Fv2 locus confers susceptibility to disease induced by the Friend erythroleukaemia virus complex1 (see page 159).

Induction of erythroleukaemia by the Friend virus complex requires two components: the replication-competent Friend virus (FV), which drives viral passage; and the associated replication-defective spleen focus-forming virus (SFFV), which is responsible for erythroblastosis, the proliferation of erythroid precursors characteristic of the first stage of Friend disease2. The leukaemia caused by the Friend virus complex is distinctive in that the genome of SFFV, unlike those of other replication-defective retroviruses that induce tumours, does not contain an oncogene. Instead, pathogenicity is associated with expression of gp55, a recombinant, truncated form of the viral envelope glycoprotein2. The gp55 protein binds and stimulates erythropoietin receptors expressed in the same cells3 (see figure), leading to increased replication of the erythroid precursors known as BFU-E and CFU-E. Progression to frank leukaemia is associated with subsequent genetic changes in these proliferative cells, including loss of TP53 and overexpression of the gene encoding the Sp.1 transcription factor4,5.

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  1. Genetic Disease Research Branch, National Human Genetic Disease Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda , 20892, Maryland, USA

    Pamela L Schwartzberg

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  1. Pamela L Schwartzberg
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Schwartzberg, P. A friendly signal. Nat Genet 23, 128–130 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/13753

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