MULTIPLE ABERRANT SPLICING OF THE P53 TRANSCRIPT WITHOUT GENOMIC MUTATIONS AROUND EXON-INTRON JUNCTIONS IN A CASE OF CHRONIC MYELOGENOUS LEUKEMIA IN BLAST CRISIS - A POSSIBLE NAVEL MECHANISM OF P53 INACTIVATION

We found three truncated p53 transcripts in a patient with chronic mye logenous leukaemia in blast crisis carrying chromosome 17 abnormalitie s. Sequencing of these transcripts revealed complete absence of the en tire exons 7, 8 and 9 in one, exons 8 and 9 in another, and exon 10 in the other. Sequencing analysis of genomic DNA, however, revealed no m utation in exons 6-10 and their nanking introns. These results suggest that the aberrant p53 transcripts in this case might not result from splicing mutations but from an unknown affected splicing process.