The Philadelphia chromosome translocation generates a chimeric oncogene, BCR/ABL which causes chronic myelogenous leukemia. Two different fusion proteins can be produced, p190BCR/ABL and p210BCR/ABL, depending on the location of the breakpoint in BCR. Although the ABL tyrosine kinase activity of the resulting oncoprotein is essential for transformation, the exact functional contribution of BCR to transformation is unclear. A novel oncogene containing ABL is formed by the (9; 12) translocation which fuses part of the ets-family member TEL to c-ABL in patients with acute leukemia. In an effort to compare the biological effects of various ABL oncogenes, we transformed two different factor-dependent murine hematopoietic cell lines with cDNA's encoding p210BCR/ABL, p190BCR/ABL, or TEL/ABL. Transfection of each of the three activated ABL oncogenes resulted in rapid emergence of growth factor-independence, and 2-4 sublines from each cell line with each oncogene were further studied. Each oncogene induced an increase in the tyrosine phosphorylation of cellular proteins and autophosphorylation of the oncoprotein itself. Overall, the pattern of increased tyrosine phosphorylation was similar in the cell lines, suggesting that many of the major substrates were identical. We specifically examined a series of proteins known to be p210BCR/ABL substrates, including rasGAP, Shc, SH-PTP2, SH-PTP1, CRK-L, CBL, paxillin, and STATs, and found that each were also tyrosine phosphorylated in response to p190BCR/ABL and TEL/ABL. These results suggest that the function of BCR can be largely replaced by the unrelated protein TEL with regards to transformation of murine hematopoietic cell lines to factor-independence, and support the hypothesis that a major contribution of both fusion partners is to activate the ABL tyrosine kinase.