The B-lymphocyte maturation promoting transcription factor BLIMP1/PRDI-BF1 maps to D6S447 on human chromosome 6q21-q22.1 and the syntenic region of mouse chromosome 10

The human PRDI-BF1 or BLIMP1 gene and its mouse homolog Blimp1 are members of the recently realized PR domain family that includes the retinoblastoma interacting zinc finger gene RIZ and the MDS1-EVI1 leukemia cancer gene. The specific high-level expression of Blimp1 in late B and plasma cells, its induction during B-cell differentiation, and its ability to drive B-cell maturation suggest that this gene may play a role in the differentiation and pathogenesis of B cells. We have now mapped the physical location of BLIMP1 near the marker D6S447 on human chromosome 6q21-q22.1; we have also mapped Blimp1 to mouse Chromosome 10 at 14 cM distal to the Myb locus and to a region homologous to the location of BLIMP1. Deletions of the 6q21-q22 region are common in several human malignancies, particularly in B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NRL). The data led us to suggest that BLIMP1 may be a candidate B-NHL tumor suppressor gene. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.