Highlight Publication July 2007

Osborne CS, Chakalova L, Mitchell JA, Horton AM, Wood AL, Bolland DJ, Corcoran AE, Fraser P
Myc dynamically and preferentially relocates to a transcription factory occupied by Igh.
PLoS Biology 5 e192, 1763-1772
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0050192

Lay Description

Many different types of cancer result from gene translocations. Specifically, two different chromosomes can be joined that fuse growth control genes with powerful regulatory elements, leading to unrestricted control of cell growth. Translocation partner genes must physically encounter each other in the nucleus to undergo a translocation; how they find each other in the crowded nucleus is unknown. We showed previously that gene transcription occurs at a few hundred discrete nuclear sites called transcription factories

In the current study we investigated the effects of activation of the Myc proto-oncogene and examined its location with respect to transcription factories and its common translocation partner, the immunoglobulin heavy chain (Igh) gene. We found that switching on the Myc gene leads to its rapid relocation to a transcription factory. Surprisingly, we found that the activated Myc frequently chooses the same transcription factory as the highly transcribing Igh gene. This close juxtaposition of translocation partner genes at a shared transcription factory may provide the opportunity for a chromosomal translocation, and thus may be the first step in the genesis of several types of cancers.

About the Lead Author

I’m originally from Vancouver, Canada and obtained my Ph.D. at the University of Adelaide, Australia. I joined Peter Fraser’s group at the Babraham Institute in 2000, where I developed an interest in the nuclear organization of transcription. In 2005, I was awarded a Career Progression Fellowship by the Babraham Institute which allowed me to seek external Fellowship support. In 2007, I was awarded a Leukaemia Research Fund, Bennett Senior Fellowship to start my own group, investigating the impact of the nuclear organization of transcription on cancer-causing chromosomal translocations.