Begley et al. (1989) studied a leukemic stem cell line capable of differentiating into either myeloid or lymphoid cells that carried a t(1;14)(p33;q11) translocation. The chromosome 1 region involved in the breakpoint was the site of transcriptional activity apparently occurring only in hematopoietic tissues.

Begley et al. (1989) concluded that the translocation may identify a gene on chromosome 1 that is important for hematopoietic development and oncogenesis, and they suggested the gene designation SCL. Chen et al. (1990) concluded that the TAL1 gene encodes a helix-loop-helix protein with homology to LYL1, which is also involved in malignant development of lymphocytes.