Department of Clinical Genetics, University Hospital, Lund, Sweden.
Myxoid liposarcomas (MLS) carry a t(12;16) or, more rarely, a t(12;22) resulting in fusion of the transcription factor gene CHOP on chromosome 12 with TLS/FUS on chromosome 16 or EWS on chromosome 22. The chimeric TLS-CHOP or EWS-CHOP proteins most probably function as abnormal transcription factors, causing transcriptional de-regulation of several target genes and relaxation of functions critical for growth and differentiation control. A PCR-based subtractive hybridization technique was used to identify genes that are differentially expressed in TLS-CHOP-carrying MLS but not in normal fat tissue. Six myxoid-liposarcoma-associated transcripts, MLAT, were isolated. The genes identified as MLAT can be divided into 2 groups. MLAT1, 2 and 6 show high similarity to glia-derived nexin, neuronatin and the RET oncogene, respectively, all normally involved in development of tissues of neural origin. MLAT3 to MLAT5 represent new genes. Copyright 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.