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Specific chromosomal abnormalities are regularly associated with many marine and human malignancies1,2. In particular, the majority of murine plasmacytomas and human Burkitt's lymphomas contain a characteristic translocation which results in the juxtaposition of a cellular oncogene, c-myc, with the immunoglobulin heavy-chain gene locus3–7, and this rearranged c-myc directs the synthesis of qualitatively and quantitatively abnormal transcripts which may have an aetiological role in the development of the transformed state in lymphoid malignancies8,9. Similarly, rearrangement and abnormal expression of c-myb (ref. 10) and c-mos (ref. 11) has been reported in other murine lymphoid tumours. Here we describe a novel 6:10 chromosomal translocation in the murine plasmacytoma cell line NS-1 which juxtaposes the immunoglobulin Cκ gene with a single-copy sequence of unknown function. The NS-1 plasmacytoma is a frequently used fusion partner in hybridoma production12 and is known to contain a rearranged c-myc gene4,13 and a genetic element which transforms normal mouse fibroblasts in DNA-mediated transfection assays14. We conclude that individual B-cell tumours may contain multiple chromosomal translocations perhaps relevant to oncogenesis.

The chromosomal locations of the human and murine T11 (CD2) gene have been determined. Using recently cloned cDNA to probe Southern blots of mouse X human and Chinese hamster X mouse somatic cell hybrids, we have localized the human T11 gene to chromosome 1 and the murine T11 gene to chromosome 3. Based on previously determined blocks of homology between human chromosome 1 and mouse chromosome 3, it is suggested that the human T11 gene may lie on the short arm of chromosome 1 proximal to p221. Thus, the T11 gene is not linked to any other genes for T cell markers that have been mapped to date.