Unraveling the molecular signature of BCR-ABLT3151 in the Drosophila melanogater CML model

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a clonal hematopoietic stem cell disorder resulting from a balanced translocation namely the Philadelphia chromosome. It produces the BCR-ABL1 oncogene that encodes for the BCR-ABL1 fusion protein that demonstrates increased tyrosine kinase activity. In the present study we aim to investigate the transcriptomic and molecular profiles of the wild type BCR-ABLp210 and BCR-ABLT315I mutant in attempt to examine their pathogenesis and find potential targets in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). The molecular profiles of the BCR-ABLp210 and BCR-ABLT315I mutant were highly similar, leading us to identify six genes that were consistently upregulated. Functional analysis of these genes revealed their ability to rescue the observed phenotypes associated with hemocytes when they were suppressed in flies expressing BCR-ABL1p210 and BCR-ABL1T315I. Additionally, we observed an increase in markers associated with lamellocyte differentiation in both BCR-ABL1p210 and BCR-ABL1T315I, with significant upregulation of genes involved in this process. Overall, our study provides a comprehensive analysis of gene signatures in BCR-ABL1p210 and BCR-ABL1T315I, which can serve as a foundation for further targeted investigations into the role of these genes in the pathogenesis of BCR-ABL1p210 and BCR-ABL1T315I in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). For RNA sequencing, RNA was extracted from collected hemocytes form 3rd instar larval groups. The following three Drosophila Melanogaster groups were used: W1118 (control), BCR-ABLp210 and BCR-ABLT315I. Three different biological replicates (N=3) with 300 third-instar larvae for each replicate were used for RNA-seq (900 larvae total).