Cell Polarity and Division Symmetry Analyses in Transformed Blood Cells

Cdc42 was originally discovered as a key regulator of bud site assembly and polarity in S. cerevisiae. Recent genetic studies have shown that the function of Cdc42 in regulating cell polarity appears highly conserved from budding yeast to humans. The role of Cdc42 in hematopoietic cell transformation and leukemia progression has been studied in an acute myeloid leukemia model using the MLL-AF9 oncogene-induced transformation and a Cdc42 conditional gene-targeted mouse model. Here we describe the leukemia cell polarity and division symmetry assays in the context of leukemia cell fate determination.