Stanton L W, Schwab M, Bishop J M
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1986 Mar;83(6):1772-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.6.1772.
Human neuroblastomas frequently display amplification and augmented expression of a gene known as N-myc because of its similarity to the protooncogene c-myc. It has therefore been proposed that N-myc is itself a protooncogene, and subsequent tests have shown that N-myc and c-myc have similar biological activities in cell culture. We have now detailed the kinship between N-myc and c-myc by determining the nucleotide sequence of human N-myc and deducing the amino acid sequence of the protein encoded by the gene. The topography of N-myc is strikingly similar to that of c-myc: both genes contain three exons of similar lengths; the coding elements of both genes are located in the second and third exons; and both genes have unusually long 5' untranslated regions in their mRNAs, with features that raise the possibility that expression of the genes may be subject to similar controls of translation. The resemblance between the proteins encoded by N-myc and c-myc sustains previous suspicions that the genes encode related functions.
人类神经母细胞瘤常常由于与原癌基因c-myc相似，而表现出一种名为N-myc的基因的扩增和表达增强。因此，有人提出N-myc本身就是一种原癌基因，随后的测试表明，N-myc和c-myc在细胞培养中具有相似的生物学活性。我们现在通过确定人类N-myc的核苷酸序列并推导该基因编码的蛋白质的氨基酸序列，详细阐述了N-myc和c-myc之间的亲缘关系。N-myc的结构与c-myc惊人地相似：两个基因都包含三个长度相似的外显子；两个基因的编码元件都位于第二和第三外显子中；并且两个基因的mRNA都有异常长的5'非翻译区，其特征增加了基因表达可能受到相似翻译控制的可能性。N-myc和c-myc编码的蛋白质之间的相似性支持了之前关于这两个基因编码相关功能的怀疑。
