Roles of tyrosine 589 and 591 in STAT5 activation and transformation mediated by FLT3-ITD.

Acquired mutations in the FLT3 receptor tyrosine kinase are common in acute myeloid leukemia and result in constitutive activation. The most frequent mechanism of activation is disruption of the juxtamembrane autoregulatory domain by internal tandem duplications (ITDs). FLT3-ITDs confer factor-independent growth to hematopoietic cells and induce a myeloproliferative syndrome in murine bone marrow transplant models. We and others have observed that FLT3-ITD activates STAT5 and its downstream effectors, whereas ligand-stimulated wild-type FLT3 (FLT3WT) does not. In vitro mapping of tyrosine phosphorylation sites in FLT3-ITD identified 2 candidate STAT5 docking sites within the juxtamembrane domain that are disrupted by the ITD. Tyrosine to phenylalanine substitution of residues 589 and 591 in the context of the FLT3-ITD did not affect tyrosine kinase activity, but abrogated STAT5 activation. Furthermore, FLT3-ITD-Y589/591F was incapable of inducing a myeloproliferative phenotype when transduced into primary murine bone marrow cells, whereas FLT3-ITD induced myeloproliferative disease with a median latency of 50 days. Thus, the conformational change in the FLT3 juxtamembrane domain induced by the ITD activates the kinase through dysregulation of autoinhibition and results in qualitative differences in signal transduction through STAT5 that are essential for the transforming potential of FLT3-ITD in vivo.