Fusion genes resulting from alternative chromosomal translocations are overexpressed by gene-specific mechanisms in alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma

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Abstract
Chromosomal translocations identified in hematopoietic and solid tumors result in deregulated expression of protooncogenes or creation of chimeric proteins with tumorigenic potential. In the pediatric solid tumor alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, a consistent t(2;13)(q35;q14) or variant t(1;13)(p36;q14) translocation generates PAX3-FKHR or PAX7-FKHR fusion proteins, respectively. In this report, we demonstrate that in addition to functional alterations these translocations are associated with fusion product overexpression. Furthermore, PAX3-FKHR and PAX7-FKHR overexpression occurs by distinct mechanisms. Transcription of PAX3-FKHR is increased relative to wild-type PAX3 by a copy number-independent process. In contrast, PAX7-FKHR overexpression results from fusion gene amplification. Thus, gene-specific mechanisms were selected to overexpress PAX3-FKHR and PAX7-FKHR in alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, presumably due to differences in regulation between the wild-type loci. We postulate that these overexpression mechanisms ensure a critical level of gene product for the oncogenic effects of these fusions.