RBM15 is the fusion partner with MKL in the t(1;22) translocation of acute megakaryoblastic leukemia. To understand the role of the RBM15-MKL1 fusion protein in leukemia, we must understand the normal functions of RBM15 and MKL. Here, we show a role for Rbm15 in myelopoiesis. Rbm15 is expressed at highest levels in hematopoietic stem cells and at more moderate levels during myelopoiesis of murine cell lines and primary murine cells. Decreasing Rbm15 levels with RNA interference enhances differentiation of the 32DWT18 myeloid precursor cell line. Conversely, enforced expression of Rbm15 inhibits 32DWT18 differentiation. We show that Rbm15 alters Notch-induced HES1 promoter activity in a cell type-specific manner. Rbm15 inhibits Notch-induced HES1 transcription in nonhematopoietic cells but stimulates this activity in hematopoietic cell lines, including 32DWT18 and human erythroleukemia cells. Moreover, the N terminus of Rbm15 coimmunoprecipitates with RBPJ, a critical factor in Notch signaling, and the Rbm15 N terminus has a dominant negative effect, impairing activation of HES1 promoter activity by full-length-Rbm15. Thus, Rbm15 is differentially expressed during hematopoiesis and may act to inhibit myeloid differentiation in hematopoietic cells via a mechanism that is mediated by stimulation of Notch signaling via RBPJ.Acute megakaryoblastic leukemia (AML-M7, also referred to as AMKL) comprises approximately 10% of childhood AML, in which it frequently presents in infants with bone marrow fibrosis and progresses rapidly, with a median survival of 8 months. This phenotype is associated with the t(1;22)(p13; q13) translocation, which was first observed in several infants with AML-M7 (5) and subsequently confirmed by others to be associated almost exclusively with this type of AML (2, 30, 31, 34). The t(1;22) translocation has only very rarely been associated with the AML-M7 cases that occur in association with trisomy 21; in general, AML-M7 with trisomy 21 is nearly always associated with mutations in the GATA1 gene (14, 32). In t(1;22), the breakpoint on chromosome 1p13 is within a gene that has been variably named RBM15 for RNA-binding motif protein 15 and OTT (for one twenty-two translocation), and the breakpoint on chromosome 22 is within the MKL1 gene (also known as MAL or BSAC).The MKL1 gene product is a 4.5-kb transcript that is widely expressed in normal tissues (35) and encodes one of three members of the myocardin family. While these three members, i.e., MKL1, MKL2, and myocardin, are only 35% similar to one another at the protein level, they have several highly conserved domains, including RPEL repeats in the N terminus, a region with a B (basic amino acid) box and a glutamine-rich domain that is involved in binding to serum response factor, a leucine zipper-like domain that plays a role in homo-and heterodimerization, and a C-terminal transactivation domain. These proteins also have a SAP domain that, based on its homology to SAF-B, is predicted to associate with matrix attachment regions of transcrip...