Localization of a putative tumor suppressor gene by using homozygous deletions in melanomas.

The p21 region of human chromosome 9 is thought to contain a gene (MLM) involved in genetic susceptibility to melanoma and a gene or genes that influence progression of certain other tumors. Genomic clones that span a large region in 9p21 surrounding the presumptive tumor suppressor gene(s) have been isolated. A set of sequence-tagged sites in this region has been developed. By using these markers and others previously reported, the 9p21 region has been studied by physical mapping in 84 melanoma cell lines. A putative tumor suppressor gene, perhaps MLM itself, has been localized to a region of less than 40 kb that lies proximal (centromeric) to the alpha-interferon gene cluster.