Cellular myc oncogene is altered by chromosome translocation to an immunoglobulin locus in murine plasmacytomas and is rearranged similarly in human Burkitt lymphomas.

Abstract

Molecular cloning has recently established that the 15;12 chromosome translocations in murine plasmacytomas fuse DNA from chromosome 15 to the immunoglobulin heavy (H) chain locus, usually within the switch recombination region near the a constant region gene. We show here that the incoming DNA bears the cellular gene (c-myc) homologous to the oncogene (vnmyc) of avian retrovirus MC29. In human Burkitt lymphomas bearing an 8;14 translocation, c-myc was also rearranged, apparently (in at least two cases) to an H chain switch recombination region (IA or a), and both products of a reciprocal chro-

Activation of a translocated human c-myc gene by an enhancer in the immunoglobulin heavy-chain locus

“…The unrearranged c-myc gene is still present in Manca cells, but our preliminary results from use of Northern probes (probe 2 in Figure 1), S 1 mapping and cDNA cloning indicate that this allele is barely, if at all, expressed. Such a situation has already been reported for a mouse plasmacytoma and may be true for other Burkitt's lymphomas 11,32,34 . Hence, transcriptional activation of the c myc gene appears to be an important result of translocation and in the case described here, it is possible that such activation is largely contributed to by the immunoglobulin heavychain locus enhancer.…”

“…Adrian C. Hayday, Stephen D. Gillies recently been shown that the c-myc gene is translocated into an immunoglobulin locus in certain lymphoid neoplasms of both mice and men [7][8][9][10][11][12] . Thus, murine c-myc gene is recombined into the immunoglobulin heavy-chain locus in BALBIc plasmacytomas characterized by t(12:15) translocations 7,[9][10][11] .…”

“…Thus, murine c-myc gene is recombined into the immunoglobulin heavy-chain locus in BALBIc plasmacytomas characterized by t(12:15) translocations 7,[9][10][11] . Likewise,in a majority of the many Burkitt's lymphomas or non-Hodgkin's lymphomas characterized by t(8:14) (q24; q32) translocations, the c-myc gene is recombined into the immunoglobulin heavy-chain locus 8,11,12 .…”

“…Thus, murine c-myc gene is recombined into the immunoglobulin heavy-chain locus in BALBIc plasmacytomas characterized by t(12:15) translocations 7,[9][10][11] . Likewise,in a majority of the many Burkitt's lymphomas or non-Hodgkin's lymphomas characterized by t(8:14) (q24; q32) translocations, the c-myc gene is recombined into the immunoglobulin heavy-chain locus 8,11,12 . It has generally been considered that in these and other neoplasms where nonrandom chromosomal translocations have been observed, c-onc genes are activated by the translocations [13][14][15] .…”

“…As a further result of this deletion the 3.1 kb BglII fragment detected with probe 3 (indicated in b) is only detected in pSV2.26 transformants. Bands labelled J in a are due to the cross-reactivity of probe 1 with normal and rear ranged mouse c-myc genes in J558L cells 11,32 . Restriction sites marked in the lower diagram: R, EcoRI; X, XbaI; H, HindIII; B, BglII; A, AvaI; C, ClaI.…”