Aberrant expression of an amplified c-myb oncogene in two cell lines from a colon carcinoma

Two cell lines (COLO 201 and COLO 205) derived independently from a single adenocarcinoma of the human colon each harbored an approximately 10-fold amplification of the cellular oncogene c-myb and a proportional abundance of the 4-kilobase mRNA derived from c-myb. By contrast, expression of c-myb could not be detected in cells from a variety of other solid tumors, including other colon carcinomas. Analysis of the amplified DNA with restriction endonucleases failed to reveal any topographical abnormalities within c-myb. Neither COLO 201 nor COLO 205 carry the double minute chromosomes and homogeneously staining regions of chromosomes that frequently serve as karyotypic signatures of amplified DNA. Instead, amplified c-myb is carried on what appear to be disomic or trisomic copies of the same anomalous marker chromosome that is characteristic of both COLO 201 and COLO 205. The karyological origin of this abnormal chromosome is not presently apparent. Our findings show c-myb expression by cells outside of the hemopoietic lineage, raise the possibility that amplification and/or ectopic expression of c-myb may have contributed to the genesis of the tumor from which the cells of COLO 201 and COLO 205 arose, and suggest that amplification of cellular oncogenes may be a more common factor in tumorigenesis than might have been suspected from available karyological data.