THE BAX GENE MAPS TO THE GLIOMA CANDIDATE REGION AT 19Q13.3, BUT IS NOT ALTERED IN HUMAN GLIOMAS

The box protein regulates apoptosis in a cellular pathway that involve s both bcl-2 and p53, two molecules associated with human glioma tumor igenesis. We therefore evaluated the possibility that BAX functions as a glioma tumor suppressor gene. Somatic cell hybrid panels, fluoresce nce in situ hybridization and cosmid mapping localized the BAX gene to 19q13.3, approximately 300 kb centromeric to HRC. Thus BAX maps to th e region of chromosome 19 most frequently deleted in gliomas. Routine and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis/Southern blotting studies, howeve r, failed to reveal large-scale deletions or rearrangements of the BAX gene in gliomas, In addition, single strand conformation polymorphism analysis of all six BAX exons and flanking intronic sequences did not disclose mutations in 20 gliomas with allelic loss of the other copy of 19q. A C/T polymorphism was defected in intron 3 and was common in the general population. Therefore, although BAX maps to the glioma can didate region on the long arm of chromosome 19, BAX is probably not th e 19q glioma tumor suppressor gene.