Isolation of a novel candidate oncogene within a frequently amplified region at 3q26 in ovarian cancer

Amplification of 3q25-q26 was one of the most frequent chromosomal alterati ons in human ovarian carcinoma. A chromosome microdissection-hybrid selecti on method was applied to isolate transcribed sequences from a primary ovari an cancer containing high-copy-number amplification of 3q26 using 3q26 band -specific DNAs generated by chromosome microdissection. Using this method, we have isolated a novel candidate oncogene eIF-5A2 (eukaryotic initiation factor 5A2), eIF-5A2 shares 82% identity of amino acid sequence with eIF-5A including the minimum domain needed for eIF-5A maturation by hypusine modi fication at lysine-50 residue. Amplification and overexpression of eIF-5A2 was frequently detected in primary ovarian cancers and ovarian cancer cell lines. The proliferation-related function of eIF-5A supports that eIF-5A2 i s a candidate oncogene related to the development of ovarian cancer.