Increment of nonreceptor tyrosine kinase Arg RNA as evaluated by semiquantitative RT-PCR in granulocyte and macrophage-like differentiation of HL-60 cells

The products of the human Arg gene and human, mouse, Drosophila, and nemato de Abl genes characterize the Abelson family of nonreceptor tyrosine protei n kinase. The Arg gene, expressed as a 12-kb transcript, codes a protein hi ghly related to c-abl in the tyrosine kinase, SH2, and SH3 domains, and bot h proteins have a myristoylated isoform. The C-terminal domains of Arg and c-abl, poorly similar to each other, may account for their different functi ons. Arg is cytoplasmic, c-abl also has nuclear localization, and their pro ducts have different transforming activity. To gain insight about the role of Arg in myeloid differentiation we investigated Arg gene expression in HL -60 cells differentiated with all-trans retinoic acid and 12-O-tetradecanoy l-phorbol-13-acetate. With a semiquantitative reverse transcriptase-polymer ase chain reaction assay it was evident that the Arg transcript level in HL -60 cells differentiated toward granulocyte and macrophage-like lineage was , respectively, 3.5- and 2.8-fold the Arg level evidenced in undifferentiat ed HL-60 cells. In the HL-60 cells, under the same differentiating conditio ns, the c-abl RNA level did not change significantly, showing that Arg and c-abl responded in a different way to the inducers of differentiation used. (C) 1998 Academic Press.