title: Translocation of the c-myc gene into the immunoglobulin heavy chain locus in human Burkitt lymphoma and murine plasmacytoma cells.
abstract: The consistent appearance of specific chromosomal translocations in human Burkitt lymphomas and murine plasmacytomas has suggested that these translocations might play a role in malignant transformation. Here we show that transformation of these cells is frequently accompanied by the somatic rearrangement of a cellular analogue of an avian retrovirus transforming gene, c-myc. Moreover, we map c-myc to human chromosome 8 band q24, the chromosomal segment involved in the reciprocal Burkitt translocations [t(8;14), t(8;22) and t(2;8)]. In two t(8;14) human Burkitt cell lines, c-myc appears to have been translocated directly into a DNA restriction fragment that also encodes the immunoglobulin mu chain gene. In the case of a specific cloned fragment of DNA derived from a mouse plasmacytoma, we demonstrate directly that c-myc has been translocated into the immunoglobulin alpha switch region. Our data provide a molecular basis for considering the role that specific translocations might play in malignant transformation.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002051:Burkitt Lymphoma / Q000235:genetics*; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D002906:Chromosomes, Human, 6-12 and X; D005796:Genes; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D006801:Humans; D007143:Immunoglobulin Heavy Chains / Q000235:genetics*; D007137:Immunoglobulin alpha-Chains / Q000235:genetics; D007148:Immunoglobulin mu-Chains / Q000235:genetics; D051379:Mice; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D009857:Oncogenes; D010954:Plasmacytoma / Q000235:genetics*; D014178:Translocation, Genetic
chemical_list: D007143:Immunoglobulin Heavy Chains; D007137:Immunoglobulin alpha-Chains; D007148:Immunoglobulin mu-Chains