The 'promiscuous' E2A gene, at 19p13.3, is fused with two different molecular partners, PBX1 and HLF, following two chromosome translocations recurrent in childhood pre-B ALL.
Thus rearrangement of the E2A gene is not restricted to cases with pre-B ALL but may also occur in acute leukemias with other immunological phenotypes.
The E2A gene is involved by the t(1;19)(q23;p13) in acute pre-B-cell leukemias and the LYL1 gene is structurally altered by a t(7;19)(q34;p13) in T-cell ALL.
Using a specific E2A gene probe spanning the DNA binding and dimerization domain obtained by PCR methodology, we were able to detect the rearrangement of the E2A gene in four cases (three patients and one cell line) of pre-B acute lymphoblastic leukemia with t(1;19) translocation.