Functional Genomics: Identification of Potential Oncogenes on Chromosome 21 by RNA Interference Screening

Introduction: Down syndrome acute megakaryoblastic leukemia (DS-AMKL) is characterized by the triad of fetal origin, mutated GATA1 (GATA1s), and trisomy 21. Methods: Hypothesizing that the presence of an extra copy of human chromosome 21 (hsa21) is one basal requirement for the onset of the DS-AMKL, we sought to screen for potential oncogenic candidates using a lentiviral shRNA library (522 shRNA constructs against 210 genes present on hsa21). Proliferation and viability of transduced DS-AMKL blasts (CMK, CMY) were compared against and K562, M07 cell lines. Results: Statistical analysis using cellHTS2 revealed n…