Gene fusion with an ETS DNA-binding domain caused by chromosome translocation in human tumours

Ewing's sarcoma and related subtypes of primitive neuroectodermal tumours share a recurrent and specific t(ll;22) (q24;q12) chromosome translocation1-8, the breakpoints of which have recently been cloned9. Phylogenetically conserved restriction fragments in the vicinity of EWSR1 and EWSR2, the genomic regions where the breakpoints of chromosome 22 and chromosome 11 are, respectively, have allowed identification of transcribed sequences from these regions and has indicated that a hybrid transcript might be generated by the translocation9. Here we use these fragments to screen human complementary DNA libraries to show that the translocation alters the open reading frame of an expressed gene on chromosome 22 gene by substituting a sequence encoding a putative RNA-binding domain for that of the DNA-binding domain of the human homologue of murine Fli-1.