title: The search for BRCA1.
abstract: BRCA1, a gene predisposing to breast and ovarian cancer, was mapped to chromosome 17q21 by linkage analysis. Loss of heterozygosity in breast and ovarian tumors from BRCA1-linked patients always involved loss of wild-type alleles from chromosome 17q21, suggesting that BRCA1 acts as a tumor suppressor gene. Meiotic recombination in linked families constrained the BRCA1 region to an estimated physical size of 650 kilobases. Twenty-two candidate genes were isolated by screening complementary DNA libraries with yeast artificial chromosomes and cosmids from the critical region. Of these, 8 were known human genes, 7 were homologues of genes identified in other species, and 7 encoded novel transcripts. Each gene were sequenced and analyzed for variation, revealing 44 variants, including two missense mutations in two genes which segregated with breast cancer and were not found in controls. However, no frame-shift, nonsense, or regulatory mutations were found.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley 94720.
authors.forename: L S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Friedman
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Ostermeyer
authors.forename: E D
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Lynch
authors.forename: C I
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: Szabo
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dowd
authors.forename: M K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Rowell
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Boyd
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: King
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics*; D002886:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 17 / Q000235:genetics*; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D017353:Gene Deletion; D016147:Genes, Tumor Suppressor / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics; D010375:Pedigree; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D012307:Risk Factors