Microsatellite instability in IVS3 of murine c-fes gene: tumor-associated rearrangement and mammalian divergence

The murine lymphomacrophage hybrids ESb, EbF1, EbF2-c4, which express c-fes constitutively, were found by Southern analysis to bear a c-fes deletion of almost 100 bp. The deleted allele was transmitted to the metastatic hybrids by their nonexpressing, poorly metastatic T-lymphoma progenitor Eb, which also has a structurally normal c-fes allele. PCR amplification and sequencing of fes cDNA spanning exons 3-5, where the deletion mapped, ruled out any involvement of coding sequences in the rearrangement. PCR amplification of the as yet unsequenced murine c-fes IVS3 and IVS4 showed they are about 50% longer than their human and feline homologs. Sequencing of IVS4 showed no difference between tumor and control DNA. Sequencing of part of the approximately 2600-bp IVS3 was guided by the restriction analysis of PCR products from control and hybrid DNAs. This showed that differences from the control appeared to be mainly located in the 900-bp HindIII-EcoRI fragment, localized in the middle of IVS3. As all three hybrids had the same restriction map, this fragment was sequenced in one of them (ESb). A run of >200 CA repeats was found in control DNA, and a reduction in the CAn microsatellite accounted for most of the c-fes deletion in the ESb hybrid. Interestingly, the 50% reduction in the size of human and feline c-fes IVS3 as compared with the murine homolog is mostly due to contraction of the same microsatellite.