The Bcr/Abl oncogene is responsible for the development of Ph-chromosome positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia and chronic myelogenous leukemia in humans. Previous studies demonstrated that Bcr/Abl expression is associated with elevated levels of activated Rap1, a small GTPase. Levels of activated Rap1 are determined by a balance between GTPase activating and G-nucleotide exchange factor activity. We show that Bcr/Abl forms a protein-protein complex with Spa-1, a GTPase activating protein for Rap1, both in COS-1 cells as well as in primary lymphoblastic leukemia cells from a transgenic P190 BCR/ABL mouse model. The interaction between Spa-1 and P190 did not affect the tyrosine kinase activity of P190, nor did Spa-1 become phosphorylated on tyrosine as a result of the interaction. P190 and Spa-1 co-localized to peripheral actin structures in primary lymphoblasts and expression of Spa-1 in the leukemic lymphoblasts decreased the migration of these cells. The binding of Bcr/Abl to Spa-1 may cause aberrant subcellular location of Spa-1 and affect migration of these cells.

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