A 2.5-Mb physical map within 3p21.1 spans the breakpoint associated with Greig cephalopolysyndactyly syndrome

Numerous investigations suggest that one or more genes residing in the p14 to p21 region of human chromosome 3 are critical to the development of neoplastic diseases such as renal cell carcinoma and small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). This region is additionally involved in several interchromosomal translocations, one of which is associated with the developmental disorder Greig cephalopolysyndactyly syndrome. A series of five loci that map in close proximity to the Greig syndrome breakpoint [t(3;7)(p21.1;p13)] at 3p21.1 have been physically linked by pulsed-field gel analysis over a 2.5-Mb region. The probes include ACY1, cA84 (D3S92), cA199 (D3S93), pHF12-32 (D3S2), and MW-Not153 (D3S332). The Greig 3;7 translocation breakpoint was discovered between clones cA199 and MW-Not153, separated by 825 kb. Further analysis revealed comigration of a rearranged fragment detected by MW-Not153 and a chromosome 7 probe previously shown to be in close proximity to the breakpoint (CRI-R944). This latter probe also detects a rearrangement in a second Greig-associated translocation, (6;7)(q27;p13). The physical map resulting from this analysis orders the markers along the chromosome and identifies several locations for CpG islands, likely associated with genes. Although probe pEFD145.1 (D3S32) has been genetically linked to D3S2 (2 cM), physical linkage to the other five loci could not be demonstrated. One of the linked loci, D3S2, has been widely utilized in the analysis of chromosome 3p loss in several malignant diseases. Since expression of ACY1, a housekeeping gene, is specifically reduced in many cases of SCLC, knowledge of its precise chromosomal position and identification of neighboring putative gene loci should facilitate investigation into the mechanism of this reduction.