A rearranged transforming gene, tre, is made up of human sequences derived from chromosome regions 5q, 17q and 18q.

The transfection recombinant transforming gene, tre, originated from discontinuous human genetic elements after transfection of NIH3T3 cells with genomic DNA from a Ewing's sarcoma cell line. Probes for the three normally discontinuous human elements involved in the transfection recombinant were subcloned and used in conjunction with a panel of rodent-human hybrid cells to determine their normal location in the human genome. The leftmost (5') element derives from the long arm of chromosome 5 (5q); the internal fragment derives from human chromosome 18 proximal to the bcl-2 gene; and the rightmost (3') element derives from the long arm of chromosome 17 (17q) distal to an acute leukemia breakpoint at 17q21. In situ hybridization of the same probes to human metaphase chromosomes confirmed localization of these sequences to regions 5q23----q31, 18q12, and 17q12----q22.