V-Myc Myelocytomatosis Viral Related Oncogene, Neuroblastoma Derived Opposite Strand (MYCNOS)

The N-myc oncogene has been implicated in the pathogenesis of a number of human tumors, including childhood neuroblastoma and adult small cell lung cancer. Complementary DNA clones derived from a transcription unit, N-cym, located on the opposite DNA strand to N-myc have been characterized. There is extensive overlap between the 5' ends of the two transcription units. The N-cym gene, which can encode a 109-amino acid protein, is expressed during fetal development, as well as in tumor cell lines containing amplified N-myc loci, where it is expressed at very high levels. Although other examples of overlapping, opposite-strand eukaryotic genes exist, N-myc and N-cym are unique in that they appear to be coregulated in tumor cell lines under basal growth conditions and in response to the differentiating agent retinoic acid.