Isolation of monoclonal antibodies specific for human c-myc proto-oncogene product

Parts used

Key findings

• Characterized the human c-Myc oncoprotein including its nuclear localization properties. The NLS region (PAAKRVKLD) within c-Myc was subsequently identified and widely adopted as an alternative NLS. Also introduced the 9E10 anti-Myc epitope tag used ubiquitously for protein detection. Both the NLS and tag use are downstream applications of this work.

Abstract

Six monoclonal antibodies have been isolated from mice immunized with synthetic peptide immunogens whose sequences are derived from that of the human c-myc gene product. Five of these antibodies precipitate p62c-myc from human cells, and three of these five also recognize the mouse c-myc gene product. None of the antibodies sees the chicken p110gag-myc protein. All six antibodies recognize immunoblotted p62c-myc. These reagents also provide the basis for an immunoblotting assay by which to quantitate p62c-myc in cells.