A region of minimal deletion in B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (B-NHL) has recently been defined between D6S186 and D6S227 spanning 5-9 Mb at 6q26-q27, predicting the presence of at least one tumor suppressor gene (TSG) at this locus. During the construction of a deletion map in the B-NHL tumor panel, we report the identification of a Burkitt's lymphoma cell line, BL74, having an apparent homozygous deletion at the D6S347 locus, internal to the critical region. Since this case may facilitate the localization of the target TSG, a detailed structural molecular characterization and search for candidate genes were undertaken at this locus. While BL74 underwent a loss of heterozygosity at 6q26-q27, D6S347 was also likely subjected to a somatic interlocus gene conversion-like event between two homologous but distinct loci, resulting in the homozygous replacement of a 1860- to 2067-bp segment of one locus with the corresponding segment copied from the other locus. Two genes at this locus were identified, but their lack of expression in B-cell lineages tentatively excludes them as candidate TSGs. Another still unidentified gene at this locus may be disrupted by the gene conversion-like event, which would represent a novel mechanism of TSG inactivation
