Abstract
Cellular oncogenes comprise a class of genes whose aberrant expression or function may be involved in the development of tumours1. Indeed, several naturally occurring animal and human tumours are associated with consistent alterations in the structure or genomic position of particular cellular oncogenes2–4. Recently, we isolated a DNA segment having limited similarity to c-myc (termed N-myc) from a human neuroblastoma cell line5. Although N-myc was present as a single copy in normal cells, it was selectively amplified up to 140-fold in tumour cells from human neuroblastomas5. Now, we have used somatic cell hybrids to show that N-myc is normally localized on the distal short arm of chromosome 2, and in situ hybridization to localize N-myc to chromosome 2p23–24. Further, in situ hybridization localizes amplified N-myc in neuroblastoma cells to homogeneously staining regions (HSRs) on different chromosomes. Thus, our results suggest that amplification and translocation of N-myc may be interrelated processes associated with human neuroblastoma, and demonstrate that lhe site of N-myc amplification is quite variable and bears no apparent relationship to either the normal single-copy locus or recognized sites of non-random chromosome alteration in human neuroblastoma.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bishop, J. M. A. Rev. Biochem. 52, 801–817 (1982).
Klein, G. Cell 32, 311–315 (1983).
Rowley, J. D. Nature 301, 290–291 (1983).
Yunis, J. Y. Science 221, 227–235 (1983).
Schwab, M. et al. Nature 305, 245–248 (1983).
Southern, E. M. J. molec. Biol. 98, 503–517 (1975).
Grzeschik, K.-H., Mayerova, A., Bender, K. & Johannsmann, R. Cytogenet. Cell Genet. 22, 412–414 (1978).
Owerbach, D. et al. Somat. Cell Genet. 7, 359–369 (1981).
Trent, J. M., Olson, S. & Lawn, R. M. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 79, 7809–7813 (1982).
Kanda, N. et al. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 80, 4069–4073 (1983).
Brodeur, G. M., Sekhon, G. S. & Goldstein, M. N. Cancer 40, 2256–2263 (1977).
Little, C. D., Nau, M. M., Carney, D. N., Gazdar, A. F. & Minna, J. D. Nature 306, 194–196 (1983).
Brodeur, G. M. et al. Cancer Res. 41, 4678–4686 (1981).
Biedler, J. L., Meyers, M. B. & Spengler, B. A. Cell. Neurobiol. 4, 267–307 (1983).
Alitalo, K., Schwab, M., Lin, C. C., Varmus, H. E. & Bishop, J. M. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 80, 1707–1711 (1983).
Harper, M. A. & Kellems, R. E. Cancer Bull. 33, 43–38? (1981).
Trent, J. M. in Gene Amplification (ed. Schimke, R. T.) 99–105 (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, 1982).
Seeger, R. C. et al. Cancer Res. 37, 1364–1371 (1977).
Levan, A., Manolov, G. & Clifford, P. J. natn. Cancer Inst. 41, 1377–1387 (1968).
Franck, F. & Lampert, F. Onkologie 5, 268–272 (1982).
Sandberg, A. A., Sakurai, M. & Holdsworth, R. N. I. Cancer 29, 1671–1679 (1972).
Schimke, R. T., Kaufman, R. J., Alt, F. & Kellems, R. F. Science 202, 1051–1055 (1978).
Schwab, M., Alitalo, K., Varmus, H. E., Bishop, J. M. & George, D. Nature 303, 497–501 (1983).
Schwab, M., Alitalo, K., Varmus, H. E. & Bishop, J. M. Cold Spring Harb. Conf. on Cell Proliferation and Cancer 11, (in the press).
Shimizu, K. et al. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 80, 2112–2116 (1983).
Cytogenet. Cell Genet. (in the press).
Kohl, N. E. et al. Cell 35, 359–367 (1983).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schwab, M., Varmus, H., Bishop, J. et al. Chromosome localization in normal human cells and neuroblastomas of a gene related to c-myc. Nature 308, 288–291 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1038/308288a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/308288a0
This article is cited by
-
Distinct effects of etoposide on glutamine-addicted neuroblastoma
Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences (2020)
-
Cell death-based treatment of neuroblastoma
Cell Death & Disease (2018)
-
MYCN amplified neuroblastoma requires the mRNA translation regulator eEF2 kinase to adapt to nutrient deprivation
Cell Death & Differentiation (2017)
-
Neuroblastoma: oncogenic mechanisms and therapeutic exploitation of necroptosis
Cell Death & Disease (2015)
-
A common copy-number breakpoint of ERBB2 amplification in breast cancer colocalizes with a complex block of segmental duplications
Breast Cancer Research (2012)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.