BAALC

BAALC (Brain and Acute Leukemia, Cytoplasmic)is a gene that has been associated with acute myeloid leukemia. The gene is conserved among mammals and is not found in lower organisms. Tissues that express this gene develop from the neuroectoderm. Multiple alternatively spliced transcript variants that encode different proteins have been described for this gene; however, some of the transcript variants are found only in AML cell lines. Among patients with acute myeloid leukemia, those overexpressing BAALC show distinctly poor prognosis, pointing to a key role of the BAALC products in leukemia. Some sources suggest that BAALC is a gene implicated in both neuroectodermal and hematopoietic cell functions.