Expression of the myc gene family in rat ascites tumor (TS) cells

Abstract

We studied the rearrangement and amplification of the myc gene family in rat ascites tumor (TS)cells at the 2,918 th passage after successive transplantation in Spraque-Dawley rats. Southern-blotting analysis showed that TS cells presented a different pattern from normal rat spleen cells in c-myc probe hybridization, indicating that the molecular weight of c-myc fragments in TS cells differed from that in normal cells. This implies that the c-myc in TS cells had been rearranged. Slot-blotting analysis showed that the myc genes in TS cells had the same intensity as those in the control, indicating an absence of amplification of the myc gene family in TS cells. These observations may contribute to our understanding of the characteristics of gene expression in TS cells.