No evidence for genomic imprinting of the human BCR gene
T Fioretos, N Heisterkamp and J Groffen
Department of Pathology, Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles, CA 90027.
Chronic myeloid leukemias and 5% to 20% of acute lymphoid leukemias are
characterized by the Philadelphia chromosome, a reciprocal chromosomal
translocation, t(9;22)(q34;q11), generating BCR-ABL and ABL-BCR fusion
genes. Cytogenetic studies have recently shown a preferential involvement
of the paternally derived chromosome 9 and the maternally derived
chromosome 22 in this translocation, indicating that imprinting might be
involved in the formation or selection of the translocation. In this study,
we have identified a BamHI polymorphism in the coding region of BCR exon 1,
allowing us to investigate whether both BCR alleles are transcribed. By
using a reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assay, we show that
both BCR alleles are expressed in the peripheral blood cells of normal
individuals.
Volume 83,
Issue 12,
pp. 3441-3444,
06/15/1994
Copyright © 1994 by The American Society of Hematology