A naturally occurring point substitution in Cdc25A, and not Fv2/Stk, is associated with altered cell-cycle status of early erythroid progenitor cells

The Friend virus susceptibility gene 2 (Fv2) controls the polyclonal expansion of infected cells that occurs early during Friend erythroleukemia virus infection. Fv2 has recently been shown to encode a truncated form of the Stk receptor tyrosine kinase (Sf-Stk). This observation, coupled with earlier work, suggested that Sf-Stk drives the expansion of infected cells by forming a complex with the Friend virus envelope glycoprotein, gp55, and the erythropoietin receptor. Fv2 has also been implicated in the control of cell cycling in early erythroid progenitors (erythroid blast-forming units [BFU-Es]). Mouse strains that are homozygous for the resistant allele of Fv2 (Fv2^rr) have few actively cycling BFU-Es. In this report, we demonstrate that the control of BFU-E cycling is encoded by a gene linked to, but distinct from, Fv2, and suggest that this gene is the dual-specific protein phosphatase Cdc25A, which regulates the G1-to S-phase transition of the cell cycle. We show that a naturally occurring allele of Cdc25A, which increases Cdc25A phosphatase activity and promotes cell-cycle progression, segregates in mouse strains that exhibit high levels of BFU-E cell cycling. In wild-type mice, this allele of Cdc25A does not overtly affect erythropoiesis; however, when this allele is combined with a mutation of the Kit receptor (Kit^WV), the anemia of the mice is enhanced. Furthermore, overexpression of Cdc25A in bone marrow cells causes a defect in the BFU-E colony formation. These results suggest that proper regulation of the cell cycle through Cdc25A is required for normal erythropoiesis.