Functional disturbance of transcription factors involved in normal erythroid and megakaryocytic development, such as GATA binding protein 1 (GATA1), GATA binding protein 2 (GATA2), Erythroid Krüppel-like Factor (EKLF) and Myeloproliferative Leukemia virus oncogen homology (c-MPL), is frequent in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), but the role of these disturbances in AML subtypes is unknown. The gene discussed is GATA1; the disease is acute myeloid leukemia.