A novel highly informative polyA microsatellite on the telomeric side of the INK4a/ARF locus

The INK4a/ARF locus encodes two cell cycle-regulatory proteins, p16(INK4a) and p(14ARF). Inactivation of the p16(INK4a) (MTS1) tumor suppressor gene b y mutations, promoter methylation or gene deletions is a common event in th e development of many different human tumors. The present report describes a novel polyA mononucleotide repeat situated 7.2 kb on the telomeric side o f the INK4a/ARF locus. This highly polymorphic microsatellite marker (heter ozygote frequency: 0.78) proved to be efficient for p16 allele loss and mic rosatellite instability analyses in human colon cancer. (C) 2001 Academic P ress.