TRANSLOCATION JUNCTIONS CLUSTER AT THE DISTAL SHORT ARM OF CHROMOSOME-1 (1P36.1-2) IN HUMAN NEUROBLASTOMA-CELLS

Human neuroblastoma cells show at high frequency structural changes of the distal short arm of chromosome 1 (1p). The commonly altered regio n has been identified in previous loss-of-heterozygosity (LOH) studies to involve deletion of 1p36.1-2. These bands are also the site of con stitutional alterations in patients with neuroblastoma. In an approach to define the 1p36.1-2 alterations in more detail we here employ four neuroblastoma cell lines to map translocation breaks involving 1p36.1 -2 by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). A chromosomal interva l flanked by loci DIS96 and DIS98 contained translocation junctions in each of four lines. This analysis identifies in 1p a restricted genom ic region as involved in chromosomal rearrangement in different neurob lastomas. The specificity of neuroblastoma translocation junctions at the molecular level implicates this genomic region in tumor developmen t.