Evaluation of the NUP98-HOXA9 role as oncogenic transcription factor

To study the oncogenic mechanism triggered by the leukemic fusion protein NUP98-HOXA9, we cloned the cDNA of NUP98-HOXA9 into a retroviral vector (pMSCV-IRES-GFP) and efficiently transduced the HEK293FT human cell line. We performed a ChIP-seq analysis to identify the DNA binding sites of NUP98-HOXA9. These results allowed us to demonstrate that NUP98-HOXA9 regulates the expression of genes involved in the development of Acute Myeloid Leukemia by directly interacting with their enhancer regions. We further investigated the functional contribution to the DNA binding profile of the two moieties that compose the fusion protein. We cloned the coding region of HOXA9 wt and NUP98 wt in the same retroviral vector, established two new cellular models, 293FT-HOXA9 and 293FT-NUP98, and performed separate ChIP-seq analyses. We demonstrated that both moieties contribute importantly to the regulation of the target genes. Overall design: Identification of NUP98-HOXA9, HOXA9 and NUP98 specific DNA binding sites in human cellular models