Structural characterization of the BCR gene product

Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is associated with the reciprocal translocation of a region of chromosome 22 called BCR with the c-abl gene of chromosome 9.5' coding sequences from the BCR gene are spliced in-frame to the second exon of the ABL gene to produce a CML-specific 8.5 kilobase message which encodes the BCR-ABL hybrid protein P210. To definitively identify and characterize the normal BCR gene product, sequences from BCR cDNA clones were used to reconstitute the coding portion of the normal message in retroviral and bacterial transcription vectors. The normal BCR gene product was demonstrated to be a phosphoprotein of 160 kilodaltons by in vitro translation and immunoprecipitation from lysates of NIH3T3 lines expressing BCR retroviruses. Whereas BCR-homologous RNA levels in these cell lines were increased 50 fold, BCR protein levels increased only 2 to 10 fold depending on the presence or absence of BCR-specific 5' and 3' untranslated regions. We observe a kinase activity associated with this protein but we do not observe morphological transformation of NIH3T3 cells as a result of its overproduction.