Expression of the human fes cellular oncogene in renal cell tumors.

Renal cell tumors were screened for expression of the cellular oncogenes c-abl, c-fes, c-fms, c-myc, c-ras, and c-sis in dot blot hybridization analysis. Expression of c-ras and c-myc was clearly detectable in most of the 15 tumors that were studied. The c-fes oncogene appeared to be expressed in only two of them. Comparative Southern blot analysis of molecularly cloned human c-fes DNA and genomic DNA of the 15 renal tumors revealed no major genetic differences. Northern blot analysis of poly(A)-selected RNA from the fes-positive tumors with the complete viral v-fes oncogene of the Gardner-Arnstein strain of feline sarcoma virus as a molecular probe revealed hybridization of RNA species of 3.0 and 4.5 kb, respectively. The 3.0 kb c-fes transcript has also been reported in RNA from patients suffering from acute myelogenous leukemia. The 4.5 kb transcript, however, has not been described before and represents either a c-fes-related splicing intermediate or, more likely, a completely processed transcript. The results of this study could imply that human c-fes coding sequences are more extensive than was previously assumed.