Translocation, breakage and truncated transcripts of c-myc oncogene in murine plasmacytomas

• DOI: 10.1038/303401a0
• Publication Date: 2004-11-17T23:08:06Z
• Authors: Lawrence W. Stanton; Rosemary Watt; Kenneth B. Marcu
• Keywords: 0303 health sciences; Base Sequence; Transcription, Genetic; Nucleic Acid Hybridization; DNA; DNA Restriction Enzymes; DNA, Neoplasm; Neoplasms, Experimental; Oncogenes; Translocation, Genetic; Mice; 03 medical and health sciences; Species Specificity; Animals; Humans; Plasmacytoma

Comparative nucleotide sequence analysis of a rearranged c-myc gene in a murine plasmacytoma and c-myc cDNA from normal spleen reveals that chromosomal translocation in the plasmacytoma breaks the c-myc gene within the first exon or intron. In the plasmacytoma truncated c-myc RNAs initiate from newly exposed promoter sites. Nevertheless, the myc polypeptide produced in the plasmacytoma is probably the same as that from the intact c-myc gene because the exon lost by breakage and translocation is non-coding. The second and third exons of the mouse c-myc gene are substantially conserved in the v-myc gene of the avian retrovirus, MC29.