4C-Seq in Acute Myeloid Leukemia with a 3q-aberration

Chromosomal rearrangements without gene-fusions have been implicated in leukemogenesis by causing deregulation of proto-oncogenes via relocation of cryptic regulatory DNA elements. AML with inv(3)/t(3;3) is associated with aberrant expression of the stem-cell regulator EVI1. Applying functional genomics and genome-engineering, we demonstrate that both 3q-rearrangements reposition a distal GATA2 enhancer to ectopically activate EVI1 and simultaneously confer GATA2 functional haploinsufficiency, previously identified as the cause of sporadic familial AML/MDS and MonoMac/Emberger syndromes. Using 4C-seq we determined that the GATA2 enhancer interacts with the EVI1 promoter after repositioning.