A fusion gene is a hybrid gene formed from two previously separate genes. It can occur as the result of a translocation, interstitial deletion, or chromosomal inversion. The fusion of two genes is often taken as evidence that these genes have related functions1. Often, fusion genes are oncogenes; examples include BCR-ABL, FIG-ROS, TEL-AML1 (ALL with t(12 ; 21)), AML1-ETO (M2 AML with t(8 ; 21)) and TEL-JAK2.
Biologists may also deliberately create fusion genes for research purposes. For example, by creating a fusion gene of a protein of interest and green fluorescent protein, the protein of interest may be observed in cells or tissue using fluorescence microscopy. The protein synthesized when a fusion gene is expressed is called a fusion protein.
References
- ^ [1]Christian von Mering,1,2 Martijn Huynen,3 Daniel Jaeggi,1,2 Steffen Schmidt,1,2 Peer Bork,1,2* and Berend Snel3. (2003). STRING: a database of predicted functional associations between proteins. Nucleic Acids Res.31(1): 258–261.
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