In this issue, Yokoyama and Cleary (2008) show that menin's essential, and perhaps only, contribution to leukemia is to tether a third protein, LEDGF--a chromatin-associated protein implicated in leukemia and several other disease states--to MLL.
Our findings show that the same site on IBD is involved in binding to MLL and HIV-IN, revealing an attractive approach to simultaneously target LEDGF in leukemia and HIV.
We demonstrate here that these discordant functions are unified by menin's ability to serve as a molecular adaptor that physically links the MLL (mixed-lineage leukemia) histone methyltransferase with LEDGF (lens epithelium-derived growth factor), a chromatin-associated protein previously implicated in leukemia, autoimmunity, and HIV-1 pathogenesis.