THE GENE ENCODING FOR MC56 DETERMINANT (DRUG-SENSITIVITY MARKER) IS LOCATED ON THE SHORT ARM OF HUMAN CHROMOSOME-11

A panel of mouse X human B- and T-cell hybrids was analyzed for the expression of MC56 determinant which marks the drug-sensitive state of CEM cells. Karyotypic and phenotypic analyses of the tested clones showed that the expression of MC56 determinant correlated to the presence of human chromosome II and segregated concordantly to the epitopes recognized by monoclonal antibodies in the CD44 cluster. By using a particular class of interspecific rodent X human-cell hybrids in which the human genome counterpart is represented in the different clones only by human chromosome II or its fragments, we showed that the gene encoding for MC56 determinant is located on the region p13-pter of the short arm of chromosome II. Therefore, the hypothesized homology between the drug-sensitivity marker MC56 and the CD44 determinant is supported also by gene mapping studies.