Oncogenes and the mammalian X chromosome

✍ Scribed by H. Hameister; Sabine Adolph

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1986
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 472 KB
• Volume: 72
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0340-6717
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00291886

✦ Synopsis

None of the up to now localized and expressed oncogenes maps to the mammalian X chromosome. This fact is discussed in the light of a trans-acting regulation mechanism for oncogenes. Such a specific regulation mechanism is demonstrated here for a qualitative change--i.e., varying timing of DNA-replication--at the putative c-myc gene locus in band 15E of murine T-cell leukemia. In intraspecific hybrids between tumor and non-tumor cells this qualitative change spreads over to all chromosomes 15 of the same cell, irrespective of their origin. This effect is thought to reflect a binary trans-acting regulation mechanism between homologous chromosomal loci. In the past specific chromosomal aberrations have been described in various tumors but none of these aberrations involve the X chromosome. For the mammalian X chromosome where there is usually only one gene copy per cell active the described kind of binary trans-acting regulation between homologous gene loci is rendered impossible.