The AFF1 Knockout Jurkat Polyclonal Cells are a CRISPR/Cas9-edited polyclonal knockout population of Jurkat T-lymphocyte cells designed to disrupt the AFF1 gene. This suspension cell model provides a loss-of-function tool for studying AFF1-dependent transcriptional regulation and its role in leukemogenesis. The polyclonal format captures a range of editing events, supporting population-level analyses without clonal selection.
Jurkat cells are an immortalized human T-lymphocyte line derived from peripheral blood of a 14-year-old male with acute T-cell leukemia. Widely used as a model for T-cell receptor signaling, apoptosis, and the molecular pathology of lymphoid malignancies, they are a standard system for T-ALL research. Their suspension growth and high genetic tractability make them ideal for functional genomics and cancer biology studies.
AFF1 is a scaffold protein of the super elongation complex (SEC), which promotes RNA polymerase II (Pol II) pause release and elongation. It interacts with AFF4, ENL, AF9, ELL, and P-TEFb (CDK9/Cyclin T1) to recruit CDK9 to target promoters, where CDK9 phosphorylates Pol II and negative elongation factors to activate transcription. AFF1 is a frequent MLL fusion partner; MLL-AFF1 and associated SEC components drive aberrant expression of HOXA9, MYC, BCL2, CDK6, and MCL1 via DOT1L-mediated H3K79 methylation and enhanced elongation.
Disruption of AFF1 in Jurkat cells dismantles SEC integrity, impairing elongation of genes critical for proliferation and survival. This model faithfully captures the transcriptional dependencies of AFF1-rearranged leukemias, enabling dissection of SEC-specific contributions in a T-ALL background. It provides a platform to evaluate SEC-targeted therapeutic strategies and to separate SEC-mediated effects from other oncogenic pathways.
The AFF1 Knockout Jurkat Polyclonal Cells are suitable for investigating transcriptional elongation, modeling MLL-AFF1-driven leukemia, validating SEC-targeted drugs, and genome-wide functional screens. Representative assays include Western blot for AFF1, RT-qPCR quantitation of HOXA9 and MYC, RNA-seq, ChIP-seq for SEC and Pol II occupancy, co-immunoprecipitation of SEC components, proliferation and apoptosis measurements, and metabolic profiling. For further information, please contact Ascent Research.
