Hematopoietic perturbation in zebrafish expressing a tel-jak2a fusion

<b>Objective</b><br />Various <i>TEL-JAK2</i> fusions have been identified in patients with lymphoblastic and myeloid leukemias that result in constitutive activation of the JAK2 kinase domain. Such fusions can mediate factor-independent growth of hematopoietic cell lines and induction of malignancy in mouse models.<br /><b>Materials and methods</b><br />To assess whether zebrafish could be utilized as a suitable model for the study of myeloid oncogenesis, we generated a zebrafish tel-jak2a fusion oncoprotein based on that seen in a case of chronic myeloid leukemia. This was transiently expressed in zebrafish embryos under the control of the <i>spi1 </i>promoter, which is strongly active in myeloid precursors.<br /><b>Results</b><br />Visual, histological, and molecular analysis revealed disruption of normal embryonic hematopoiesis, including perturbation of the myeloid and erythroid lineages.<br /><b>Conclusion</b><br />These results indicate that the zebrafish tel-jak2a oncoprotein is functional, and suggest that this organism will be useful for the experimental study of myeloid malignancy.<br />