A series of rat neuro/glioblastomas all contain the same transforming gene (neu) which induces synthesis of a tumour antigen of relative molecular mass (Mr) 185,000 (p185). The neu oncogene bears homology to erb-B and the tumour antigen, p185, is serologically related to the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor. The two proteins, EGF receptor and p185 appear to be distinct, as they coexist in nontransformed Rat-1 cells.

The neu oncogene, identified in ethylnitrosourea-induced rat neuroglioblastomas, had strong homology with the erbB gene that encodes the epidermal growth factor receptor. This homology was limited to the region of erbB encoding the tyrosine kinase domain. It was concluded that the neu gene is a distinct novel gene, as it is not coamplified with sequences encoding the EGF receptor in the genome of the A431 tumor line and it maps to human chromosome 17.