Characterization of the rearranged tpr-met oncogene breakpoint

We determined the nucleotide sequence of the rearranged trp-met genomic locus and the corresponding portions of the unrearranged tpr and met genomic fragments. The breakpoints occur at one end of a stretch of 21 A residues that follow an Alu repetitive sequence in the tpr locus and within a group of 3 A residues in the met proto-oncogene locus. We conclude that the fusion between the tpr locus on chromosome 1 and the met locus on chromosome 7 resulted from a recombination event.