The methylation pattern of normal and truncated amplified human c-myc oncogenes

COLO320DM and COLO320HSR are two human cell lines with 30-40-fold c-myc amplification. Half of the c-myc gene copies in COLO320DM are truncated and expressed as the predominant mRNA, while half are normal. Most c-myc copies in COLO320HSR are normal and expressed. Truncated c-myc genes are fully methylated, while the normal ones are fully demethylated irrespective of their stage of expression. The normal transcriptionally active c-myc from fibroblast cells is fully methylated, while c-myc from granulocytes (probably downregulated) is almost fully demethylated. These results indicate a lack of correlation between expression and the state of methylation for human c-myc oncogenes. Furthermore, exons 1 and 2 and intron 1 of c-myc are CpG-rich islands. Since these islands are constitutively demethylated, it is assumed that demethylation is the constitutive state and methylation the facultative state of the c-myc oncogene.