Nucleotide sequence of a human oncogene active in tumors of secretory epithelium

A novel human oncogene isolated from the human breast cancer cell line MCF7 and designated sec was identified based upon its ability to transform NIH3T3 cells in culture. Sucrose gradient fractionated DNA from a tertiary transformant, enriched for transforming activity, was utilized to generate a restricted recombinant library in the PBR322 plasmid. The library was screened by sib selection and transfection to identify a plasmid containing a cellular insert of 4.0 kb whose transforming activity was 3.0 X 10 super(4) foci per microgram. The sec) gene is altered in human breast, colon and prostate carcinomas by amplification, rearrangement or deletion.