AN ANTISENSE PROMOTER OF THE MURINE C-MYC GENE IS LOCALIZED WITHIN INTRON-2

Previously we have demonstrated the existence of stable transcripts from the noncoding strand of a rearranged c-myc gene in murine plasmacytomas in which the oncogene has translocated to an immunoglobulin constant-region gene element (M. Dean, R. B. Kent, and G. E. Sonenshein, Nature [London] 305:443-446, 1983). The resulting RNAs are chimeric, containing c-myc antisense and immunoglobulin sense sequences. A normal unrearranged murine c-myc gene is transcribed in the antisense orientation throughout much of the gene; however, stable transcripts have not been detected. In this study, using Northern (RNA) blot, S1 nuclease, and primer extension analyses, we have mapped the 5' end of the stable chimeric transcripts to a site 175 bp from the start of exon 3, within intron 2 of the c-myc gene. In vitro transcription assays with constructs containing this site and 400 bp upstream, in the antisense orientation, and nuclear extracts from plasmacytoma cells, as well as a number of cell lines with normal unrearranged c-myc genes, indicated that this promoter was functional. This finding was confirmed in transient transfection assays using the antisense promoter linked to the chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporter gene. These results suggest that a normal promoter of antisense transcription is used following c-myc gene tanslocation.