FLI1 (Friend leukemia virus integration 1)

2011-03-01   Laura M Vecchiarelli-Federico , Mehran Haeri , Yaacov Ben-David 

Molecular, Cellular Biology, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, 2075 Bayview Ave Room S216, M4N 3M5, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Identity

HGNC
LOCATION
11q24.3
LOCUSID
ALIAS
BDPLT21,EWSR2,SIC-1
FUSION GENES

DNA/RNA

Atlas Image
Figure 1: Genomic organization of human fli-1. The fli-1 gene is localized on human chromosome 11q23, contains nine exons extending over approximately 120 kb, with a processed mRNA transcript length of 1359 bp, and encodes two protein isoforms of 452 aa (p51) and 419 aa (p48).

Description

Both the mouse and human fli-1 genes are approximately 120 kb, consist of 9 exons, and encode two protein isoforms, p51 (452 aa) and p48 (419 aa) (Sarrazin et al., 2000). Fli-1 is located on mouse chromosome 9 and human chromosome 11q24.1, a region of several abnormalities in human disease (Ben-David et al., 1990; Truong and Ben David, 2000). The fli-1 gene is located within 240 kb of the ets-1 locus, suggesting that these Ets transcription factors arose by gene duplication from a common ancestral gene (Ben-David et al., 1991). The first fli-1 intron is the largest at approximately 64 kb in length, and the last exon, 9, containing the Ets DNA binding domain, is the largest at approximately 2808 bp in length (Figure 1). The sequence of the 5-untranslated region (UTR) is located within exon 1, while the sequence of the 3-UTR is located within exon 9. At least two ATG translation initiation sites have been localized to nucleotide 342 (exon 1) and 441 (exon 2) of the human Fli-1 mRNA sequence (NM_002017.3), responsible for the generation of the two protein isoforms, p51 and p48 (Sarrazin et al., 2000). The second isoform, p48, has a shorter N-terminus, contains a distinct 5UTR, and lacks an in-frame portion of the 5 coding region, compared to isoform 1, p51. The sequences flanking the transcription initiation (CAP) sites show 94% conservation between the human and mouse isoforms. The fli-1 promoter contains a potential TATA box element, and multiple regulatory elements. These include GATA, EBS, GT-rich, GC-rich, AP-2, AP-3 and CTC elements, some of which are conserved between mouse and human. The fli-1 promoter also contains binding sites for Sp-1, c-Myc, GATA-1, Ets-2, Oct-3, TBP, PEA-3, EBP, ATF/CREB, and E2A-PBX1 (Barbeau et al., 1996; Barbeau et al., 1999; Dhulipala et al., 1998). The highly conserved 5 non-translated region of exon 1 is predicted to form a very stable hairpin structure, capable of post-transcriptional autoregulation (Barbeau et al., 1996).

Transcription

Transcription of the mouse fli-1 gene produces a full-length mRNA transcript of 3087 bp, and a processed length of 1359 bp. Transcription of the human fli-1 gene produces a full-length mRNA transcript of 3993 and 3941 bp, and a processed length of 1359 and 1260 bp, respectively.

Pseudogene

Although a pseudogene has not been identified for the fli-1 gene, comparison of the amino acid sequences of Fli-1 has revealed an 80% homology to the Ets-related protein Erg, localized adjacent to the ets-2 gene, on mouse chromosome 16 (Watson et al., 1992) and human chromosome 21q22.

Proteins

Description

The fli-1 gene encodes two isoforms of 51 and 48 kDa, synthesized by alternative translation initiation sites, as mentioned above. Loss of function studies have provided evidence to suggest that both the p51 and p48 isoforms retain the same functional domains and activity (Melet et al., 1996). The functional domains located within the Fli-1 protein include the 5 Ets domain, and a Fli-1-specific region (FLS) referred to as the amino terminal transcriptional activation (ATA) domain, and a 3 Ets and carboxy terminal transcriptional activation (CTA) domain (Figure 2). The 5 Ets domain, sharing 82% sequence identity to Erg and 59-60% to Ets-1 and Ets-2, is located within amino acids 121-196. The FLS, which is absent in the Erg protein, is localized within amino acids 205-292. The 3 Ets domain, sharing 98% homology with Erg, is located within amino acids 277-360 and is responsible for sequence specific DNA-binding activity. The CTA domain, located within amino acids 402-452, is also involved in transcriptional activation and protein-protein interaction. Both the 5 and 3 Ets domain contain sequences of helix 1-loop-helix 2 (H-L-H) secondary structures that are also present in Erg (Rao et al., 1993), while the FLS and CTA domains contain sequences which resemble turn-loop-turn (T-L-T) secondary structures. The structures of the ATA and CTA domains contribute to the transcriptional activity of Fli-1. It has been suggested that the CTA region may serve simultaneously as a transcriptional activator and repressor (Rao et al., 1993). Recently, mice engineered to lack the CTA domain of Fli-1 by homologous recombination were shown to express negligible to low levels of the mutant of Fli-1 mRNA and protein (Spyropoulos et al., 2000). Furthermore, the recombinant Fli-1 protein lacking the CTA domain displayed only 50-60% of the transcriptional activity of wild- type Fli-1, providing further evidence of the CTA domains involvement in transcriptional activation. The reduced levels of mutant Fli-1 in these mice suggest that the CTA domain also functions to autoregulate Fli-1 expression. NMR spectroscopy analyses have shown that the 3 Ets domain of Fli-1 consists of three alpha-helices and a four stranded beta-sheet that resembles the structures of the class of helix-turn-helix DNA-binding proteins found in the catabolite activator protein of Escherichia coli, as well as those of several eukaryotic DNA binding proteins including H5, HNF-3/forkhead, and the heat shock transcription factor (Liang et al., 1994a; Liang et al., 1994b). A comparison of the Fli-1 3 Ets domain to other structures has suggested that this 3 Ets domain uses a new variation of the winged helix-turn-helix motif for binding to DNA (Liang et al., 1994b).
Fli-1 binds to DNA in a sequence-specific manner, and it has been determined that the optimal DNA binding sequence for Fli-1 is ACCGGAAG/aT/c (Solomon and Kaldis, 1998; Mao et al., 1994; Cui et al., 2009). The bases flanking the core GGA Ets DNA-binding motif synergistically contribute to binding specificity among different Ets transcription factors. Gene promoters containing these Ets sequences have been shown to be transcriptionally regulated by Fli-1, including bcl-2 (Lesault et al., 2002), MDM2 (Truong et al., 2005), gpIX, gpIIb (Bastian et al., 1999), mpl (Deveaux et al., 1996), and recently SHIP-1 (Lakhanpal et al., 2010).
Phosphorylation of both Fli-1 protein isoforms has been predominately detected on serine residues. This phosphorylation is modulated by the concentration of intracellular calcium, similar to Ets-1 and Ets-2, and dephosphorylation is controlled, at least in part, by the phosphatase PP2A (Zhang and Watson, 2005). Post-translational modification by phosphorylation effects Fli-1 DNA binding, protein-protein interaction and transcriptional activation, thereby contributing to the control of gene function (Zhang and Watson, 2005; Asano and Trojanowska, 2009).

Expression

Fli-1 is highly expressed in all hematopoietic tissues and endothelial cells, and at a lower level in the lungs, heart and ovaries (Ben-David et al., 1991; Melet et al., 1996; Hewett et al., 2001; Pusztaszeri et al., 2006). The ubiquitous expression of Fli-1 in all endothelial cells (Hewett et al., 2001) suggests a role for Fli-1 in endothelial cell fate and angiogenesis. It has been suggested that Fli-1 is the first dependable nuclear marker of endothelial differentiation (Rossi et al., 2004), is essential for embryonic vascular development (Spyropoulos et al., 2000), and acts as a master regulator establishing the blood and endothelial programmes in the early embryo (Gaikwad et al., 2007; Liu et al., 2008). Moreover immunohistochemical analysis has revealed that Fli-1 expression is a valuable tool in the diagnosis of benign and malignant vascular tumors.

Localisation

Similar to other Ets proteins, Fli-1 is a nuclear transcription factor and is generally localized within the nucleus, although Fli-1 protein has also been detected in the cytoplasm of specific cell types (Cui et al., 2009; Pusztaszeri et al., 2006).

Function

Fli-1 plays an important role in erythropoiesis. The constitutive activation of fli-1 in erythroblasts leads to a dramatic shift in the Epo/Epo-R signal transduction pathway, blocking erythroid differentiation, activating the Ras pathway, and resulting in massive Epo-independent proliferation of erythroblasts (Tamir et al., 1999; Zochodne et al., 2000). These results suggest that Fli-1 overexpression in erythroblasts alters their responsiveness to Epo and triggers abnormal proliferation by switching the signaling event(s) associated with terminal differentiation to proliferation (Zochodne et al., 2000). The constitutive suppression of Fli-1, mediated through RNA interference or dominant negative protein expression has revealed an essential role for continuous Fli-1 overexpression in the maintenance and survival of the malignant phenotype in both murine and human erythroleukemia (Cui et al., 2009).

Homology

Fli-1 is a member of the Ets transcription factor gene family. It is most related to Erg, located on mouse chromosome 16 and human chromosome 21. Similar to Fli-1, Erg is also activated through chromosomal translocation in human cancer. In prostate cancer, TMPRSS2 generates a fusion with ETV1, ETV4 and ETV5, and Erg share 98% homology within the Ets DNA binding domain. The fli-1 gene is conserved in human, mouse, chimpanzee, dog, cow, rat, chicken and zebrafish.
Atlas Image
Figure 2: Fli-1 functional domains. Both human and murine Fli-1 proteins consist of 452 amino acids (aa) which contain the following domains: ATA: amino-terminal transcriptional activation domain, FLS: Fli-1 specific domain, CTA: carboxy-terminal transcriptional activation domain, H-L-H: helix-loop-helix structure, and T-L-T: turn-loop-turn structure.

Mutations

Note

Fli-1 aberrant regulation is often associated with malignant transformation. Fli-1 was first identified as a target of proviral integration in F-MuLV-induced erythroleukemia (Ben-David et al., 1990). In addition to Friend erythroleukemia, integration at the fli-1 locus also occurs in leukemias induced by the 10A1 (Ott et al., 1994), Graffi (Denicourt et al., 1999), and Cas-Br-E viruses (Bergeron et al., 1991). While Fli-1 activation is associated with viral integration in mice, it is also associated with chromosomal abnormalities in humans. In Ewings sarcoma and primitive neuroectodermal tumors a chromosomal translocation results in a chimeric EWS/Fli-1 fusion protein, containing the 5 region of EWS and the 3 ETS region of Fli-1 (Delattre et al., 1992). This oncoprotein acts as an aberrant transcriptional activator with strong transforming capabilities. In addition, Fli-1 has been implicated in human leukemias, such as Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML), involving loss or fusion of the tel gene (Kwiatkowski et al., 1998). Binding of wildtype Tel, an ETS transcription factor, to Fli-1 inhibits Fli-1s regulatory function. Therefore loss of the tel gene or generation of the Tel-AML fusion protein by chromosomal translocation eliminates the normal regulation of Fli-1 leading to an increase in Fli-1 activity. Tissue microarray and immunohistochemistry has also revealed the expression of Fli-1 in a wide variety of benign and malignant tumors, such as capillary hemangioma, neuroblastoma, small cell lung carcinoma, glioblastoma, medullar breast carcinoma, non-Hodgkins lympoma, angiosarcoma, Kaposis sarcoma and lymphoblastic lymphomas (Mhawech-Fauceglia et al., 2006).

Implicated in

Entity name
Ewings sarcoma and primitive neuroectodermal tumors
Note
Ewings sarcoma is a malignant bone tumor affecting children. Such tumors usually develop during puberty, however there are few symptoms. Primitive neuroectodermal tumors are a rare group of tumors originating in cells from the primitive neural crest usually found in children under 10 years of age.
Prognosis
Since the EWS gene is fused to the fli-1 gene in the majority of Ewings sarcomas, primers spaning these genes are used to amplify the junction for genetic diagnosis (Downing et al., 1995).
Oncogenesis
Expression of the EWS/Fli-1 fusion gene in the majority of Ewings sarcomas is shown to be critical for cancer induction. Downregulation of this fusion oncoprotein using RNA interference inhibits cell growth and promotes apoptosis (Dohjima et al., 2003).
Entity name
Jacobsen or Paris-Trousseau syndrome
Note
A relatively infrequent congenital disorder in which the fli-1 gene is commonly deleted. Clinical abnormalities include growth and mental retardation, cardiac defects, dysmorphogenesis of the digits and face, pancytopenia, and thrombocytopenia (Krishnamurti et al., 2001; Favier et al., 2003; Wenger et al., 2006).
Prognosis
Chromosomal deletions result in Fli-1 deficiency.
Entity name
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)
Note
A chronic autoimmune disease with variable symptoms, commonly affecting the skin, joints, kidneys, heart and lungs.
Prognosis
SLE patients display Fli-1 overexpression in peripheral blood leukocytes (Mayor et al., 2000). Interestingly, Fli-1 overexpression also occurs in the MRL/lpr murine lupus model, and a 50% reduction of Fli-1 levels markedly prolongs survival and significantly reduces renal disease in these mice (Mayor et al., 2000).

Bibliography

Pubmed IDLast YearTitleAuthors
191582792009Phosphorylation of Fli1 at threonine 312 by protein kinase C delta promotes its interaction with p300/CREB-binding protein-associated factor and subsequent acetylation in response to transforming growth factor beta.Asano Y et al
105238301999The GATA-1 and Spi-1 transcriptional factors bind to a GATA/EBS dual element in the Fli-1 exon 1.Barbeau B et al
101944431999Regulation of the megakaryocytic glycoprotein IX promoter by the oncogenic Ets transcription factor Fli-1.Bastian LS et al
20449591991Erythroleukemia induction by Friend murine leukemia virus: insertional activation of a new member of the ets gene family, Fli-1, closely linked to c-ets-1.Ben-David Y et al
18459101991Identification of a common viral integration region in Cas-Br-E murine leukemia virus-induced non-T-, non-B-cell lymphomas.Bergeron D et al
192828322009Continuous Fli-1 expression plays an essential role in the proliferation and survival of F-MuLV-induced erythroleukemia and human erythroleukemia.Cui JW et al
15229031992Gene fusion with an ETS DNA-binding domain caused by chromosome translocation in human tumours.Delattre O et al
101963421999Oncogene activation in myeloid leukemias by Graffi murine leukemia virus proviral integration.Denicourt C et al
86398371996Analysis of the thrombopoietin receptor (MPL) promoter implicates GATA and Ets proteins in the coregulation of megakaryocyte-specific genes.Deveaux S et al
97648251998Fli-1b is generated by usage of differential splicing and alternative promoter.Dhulipala PD et al
127886552003Small interfering RNAs expressed from a Pol III promoter suppress the EWS/Fli-1 transcript in an Ewing sarcoma cell line.Dohjima T et al
78874451995Multiplex RT-PCR assay for the differential diagnosis of alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma and Ewing's sarcoma.Downing JR et al
145979852003Paris-Trousseau syndrome : clinical, hematological, molecular data of ten new cases.Favier R et al
173790692007In vitro expansion of erythroid progenitors from polycythemia vera patients leads to decrease in JAK2 V617F allele.Gaikwad A et al
113121052001Selective expression of erg isoforms in human endothelial cells.Hewett PW et al
112796432001Paris-Trousseau syndrome platelets in a child with Jacobsen's syndrome.Krishnamurti L et al
96513441998The ets family member Tel binds to the Fli-1 oncoprotein and inhibits its transcriptional activity.Kwiatkowski BA et al
204450192010The inositol phosphatase SHIP-1 is negatively regulated by Fli-1 and its loss accelerates leukemogenesis.Lakhanpal GK et al
118471172002Direct regulation of BCL-2 by FLI-1 is involved in the survival of FLI-1-transformed erythroblasts.Lesault I et al
77737761994Solution structure of the ets domain of Fli-1 when bound to DNA.Liang H et al
79721191994The secondary structure of the ets domain of human Fli-1 resembles that of the helix-turn-helix DNA-binding motif of the Escherichia coli catabolite gene activator protein.Liang H et al
187187622008Fli1 acts at the top of the transcriptional network driving blood and endothelial development.Liu F et al
111593182000VISTA : visualizing global DNA sequence alignments of arbitrary length.Mayor C et al
86493781996Generation of a novel Fli-1 protein by gene targeting leads to a defect in thymus development and a delay in Friend virus-induced erythroleukemia.Mélet F et al
169170002007Friend leukaemia integration-1 expression in malignant and benign tumours: a multiple tumour tissue microarray analysis using polyclonal antibody.Mhawech-Fauceglia P et al
7975258199410A1 MuLV induces a murine leukemia that expresses hematopoietic stem cell markers by a mechanism that includes fli-1 integration.Ott DE et al
162345072006Immunohistochemical expression of endothelial markers CD31, CD34, von Willebrand factor, and Fli-1 in normal human tissues.Pusztaszeri MP et al
83369421993Analysis of the DNA-binding and transcriptional activation functions of human Fli-1 protein.Rao VN et al
150019932004Utility of the immunohistochemical detection of FLI-1 expression in round cell and vascular neoplasm using a monoclonal antibody.Rossi S et al
107577812000Negative and translation termination-dependent positive control of FLI-1 protein synthesis by conserved overlapping 5' upstream open reading frames in Fli-1 mRNA.Sarrazin S et al
96703201998Regulation of CDKs by phosphorylation.Solomon MJ et al
108915012000Hemorrhage, impaired hematopoiesis, and lethality in mouse embryos carrying a targeted disruption of the Fli1 transcription factor.Spyropoulos DD et al
103301851999Fli-1, an Ets-related transcription factor, regulates erythropoietin-induced erythroid proliferation and differentiation: evidence for direct transcriptional repression of the Rb gene during differentiation.Tamir A et al
111753642000The role of Fli-1 in normal cell function and malignant transformation.Truong AH et al
155925022005Direct transcriptional regulation of MDM2 by Fli-1.Truong AH et al
14458001992The ERGB/Fli-1 gene: isolation and characterization of a new member of the family of human ETS transcription factors.Watson DK et al
165024312006Molecular characterization of an 11q interstitial deletion in a patient with the clinical features of Jacobsen syndrome.Wenger SL et al
158093302005The FLI-1 transcription factor is a short-lived phosphoprotein in T cells.Zhang XK et al
108223802000Epo regulates erythroid proliferation and differentiation through distinct signaling pathways: implication for erythropoiesis and Friend virus-induced erythroleukemia.Zochodne B et al

Other Information

Locus ID:

NCBI: 2313
MIM: 193067
HGNC: 3749
Ensembl: ENSG00000151702

Variants:

dbSNP: 2313
ClinVar: 2313
TCGA: ENSG00000151702
COSMIC: FLI1

RNA/Proteins

Gene IDTranscript IDUniprot
ENSG00000151702ENST00000281428Q01543
ENSG00000151702ENST00000281428A0A024R3K4
ENSG00000151702ENST00000344954Q01543
ENSG00000151702ENST00000429175A0A0A0MSR4
ENSG00000151702ENST00000527767V9GY62
ENSG00000151702ENST00000527786Q01543
ENSG00000151702ENST00000527786A0A024R3M5
ENSG00000151702ENST00000534087Q01543
ENSG00000151702ENST00000534087A0A024R3N6
ENSG00000151702ENST00000608303V9GZ02

Expression (GTEx)

0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100

Pathways

PathwaySourceExternal ID
Transcriptional misregulation in cancerKEGGko05202
Transcriptional misregulation in cancerKEGGhsa05202

References

Pubmed IDYearTitleCitations
152823252004EWS/FLI-1 silencing and gene profiling of Ewing cells reveal downstream oncogenic pathways and a crucial role for repression of insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3.145
215712182011Genome-wide analysis of simultaneous GATA1/2, RUNX1, FLI1, and SCL binding in megakaryocytes identifies hematopoietic regulators.116
203827292010EWS-FLI-1 modulates miRNA145 and SOX2 expression to initiate mesenchymal stem cell reprogramming toward Ewing sarcoma cancer stem cells.102
254539032014EWS-FLI1 utilizes divergent chromatin remodeling mechanisms to directly activate or repress enhancer elements in Ewing sarcoma.98
168023662006Association between enhanced type I collagen expression and epigenetic repression of the FLI1 gene in scleroderma fibroblasts.85
171143432006NR0B1 is required for the oncogenic phenotype mediated by EWS/FLI in Ewing's sarcoma.85
203796142010Personalized smoking cessation: interactions between nicotine dose, dependence and quit-success genotype score.62
184146622008EWS/FLI mediates transcriptional repression via NKX2.2 during oncogenic transformation in Ewing's sarcoma.61
231784922013Mechanism and relevance of EWS/FLI-mediated transcriptional repression in Ewing sarcoma.58
288446942017Cancer-Specific Retargeting of BAF Complexes by a Prion-like Domain.54

Citation

Laura M Vecchiarelli-Federico ; Mehran Haeri ; Yaacov Ben-David

FLI1 (Friend leukemia virus integration 1)

Atlas Genet Cytogenet Oncol Haematol. 2011-03-01

Online version: http://atlasgeneticsoncology.org/gene/79/fli1