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Biotechnical Methods Section (BTS)

A single split-signal FISH probe set allows detection of TAL1translocations as well as SIL-TAL1 fusion genes in a single test

Leukemia volume 16, pages 755–761 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

About 30% of T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemias (T-ALL) carry TAL1 gene aberrations. In the majority of cases (approximately 25%), this concerns a submicroscopic deletion of ∼90 kb in chromosome region 1p32, which deletes the coding regions of the SIL gene and the untranslated region of the TAL1 gene, thereby placing the TAL1 gene under control of the SIL promoter region. Translocation (1;14)(p32;q11) involving the TAL1 gene occurs at a much lower frequency (3%), whereas some other rare variant translocations have been described as well. In this study we developed a set of TAL1 FISH probes based on the split-signal FISH principle that enables detection of both types of TAL1 gene aberrations in single test. For this purpose, one probe was designed downstream of the TAL1 gene (TAL1-D) and the second probe in the region upstream of the TAL1 gene, partly covering the SIL gene (SIL-U). We show that this split-signal FISH probe set allows reliable detection of the unaffected SIL-TAL1 gene region with a fusion signal, SIL-TAL1 fusion genes with loss of the SIL-U signal, and TAL1 gene translocations with a split-signal, independent of the involved partner gene.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by grants from DAKO A/S (Glostrup, Denmark), the Dutch Cancer Society (grant EUR95–1015), and the Association for International Cancer Research (grant 99–111). The authors would like to thank Dr CG Begley (Parkville, Victoria, Australia) for cell line DU528, Dr K Pulford (Oxford, UK) for the TAL1 monoclonal antibody BTL073, and Dr SF Hsu (Kaohsiung, Taiwan) for TAL1 monoclonal antibody TWN60. We also thank Mr TM van Os for preparation of the figures.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Immunology, Erasmus University Rotterdam/University Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    M van der Burg, B Brinkhof, BH Barendregt, MCM Verschuren, JJM van Dongen & AW Langerak

  2. Dept of Clinical Genetics, Erasmus University Rotterdam/University Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    B Smit & HB Beverloo

  3. Dept of Cell Biology and Genetics, Erasmus University Rotterdam/University Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    HB Beverloo

  4. Dept of Clinical Hematology, Hôtel Dieu Hospital, Angers, France

    M Dib

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van der Burg, M., Smit, B., Brinkhof, B. et al. A single split-signal FISH probe set allows detection of TAL1translocations as well as SIL-TAL1 fusion genes in a single test. Leukemia 16, 755–761 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2402432

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Keywords

  • TAL1
  • SIL-TAL1 fusion
  • FISH
  • translocation
  • T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL)

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