Huang E, Nocka K, Beier D R, Chu T Y, Buck J, Lahm H W, Wellner D, Leder P, Besmer P
Molecular Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, New York, New York.
Cell. 1990 Oct 5;63(1):225-33. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(90)90303-v.
Mutations at the steel locus (Sl) of the mouse affect the same cellular targets as mutations at the white spotting locus (W), which is allelic with the c-kit proto-oncogene. We show that KL, a hematopoietic growth factor obtained from conditioned medium of BALB/c 3T3 fibroblasts that stimulates the proliferation of mast cells and early erythroid progenitors, specifically binds to the c-kit receptor. The predicted amino acid sequence of isolated KL-specific cDNA clones suggests that KL is synthesized as an integral transmembrane protein. Linkage analysis maps the KL gene to the Sl locus on mouse chromosome 10, and KL sequences are deleted in the genome of the Sl mouse. These results indicate that the Sl locus encodes the ligand of the c-kit receptor, KL.
小鼠steel位点（Sl）的突变与白斑位点（W）的突变影响相同的细胞靶点，白斑位点与原癌基因c-kit等位。我们发现，KL是一种从BALB/c 3T3成纤维细胞条件培养基中获得的造血生长因子，可刺激肥大细胞和早期红系祖细胞的增殖，它能特异性结合c-kit受体。分离得到的KL特异性cDNA克隆的预测氨基酸序列表明，KL是以完整的跨膜蛋白形式合成的。连锁分析将KL基因定位到小鼠10号染色体上的Sl位点，并且在Sl小鼠的基因组中缺失了KL序列。这些结果表明，Sl位点编码c-kit受体的配体KL。
