The orf-I gene of human T-cell leukemia type 1 (HTLV-1) encodes p8 and p12 and has a conserved cysteine at position 39. p8 and p12 form disulfide-linked dimers, and only the monomeric forms of p8 and p12 are palmitoylated.
Here, we demonstrate that overexpression of Ahi-1/AHI-1 in murine and human hematopoietic cells confer growth advantages in vitro and induce leukemia in vivo, enhancing effects of BCR-ABL.
Taken together, our results suggest that down-regulation of AHI-1 expression is an important conserved step in primitive normal hematopoietic cell differentiation and that perturbations in AHI-1 expression may contribute to the development of specific types of human leukemia.