Mitochondrial malate dehydrogenase (Mor-1) in the mouse: linkage to chromosome 5 markers

Mapping Genes Is Good for You

I abandoned my original career choice of high school teaching to pursue dentistry and soon abandoned that path for genetics. The latter decision was due to a challenge by a professor that led to me reading Nobel speeches by pioneer geneticists before I had formal exposure to the subject. Even then, I was 15 years into my career before my interest in rodent genomes gave way to mapping cattle genes. Events behind these twists and turns in my career path comprise the first part of this review. The remainder is a review of the development of the field of bovine genomics from my personal perspective. I have had the pleasure of working with outstanding graduate students, postdocs, and colleagues to contribute my small part to a discipline that has evolved from a few individuals mapping an orphan genome to a discipline underlying a revolution in animal breeding.

Synteny on mouse chromosome 5 of homologs for human DNA loci linked to the Huntington disease gene

Comparative mapping in man and mouse has revealed frequent conservation of chromosomal segments, offering a potential approach to human disease genes via their murine homologs. Using DNA markers near the Huntington disease gene on the short arm of chromosome 4, we defined a conserved linkage group on mouse chromosome 5. Linkage analyses using recombinant inbred strains, a standard outcross, and an interspecific backcross were used to assign homologs for five human loci, D4S43, D4S62, QDPR, D4S76, and D4S80, to chromosome 5 and to determine their relationships with previously mapped markers for this autosome. The relative order of the conserved loci was preserved in a linkage group that spanned 13% recombination in the interspecific backcross analysis. The most proximal of the conserved markers on the mouse map, D4S43h, showed no recombination with Emv-1, an endogenous ecotropic virus, in 84 outcross progeny and 19 recombinant inbred strains. Hx, a dominant mutation that causes deformities in limb development, maps approximately 2 cM proximal to Emv-1. Since the human D4S43 locus is less than 1 cM proximal to HD near the telomere of chromosome 4, the murine counterpart of the HD gene might lie between Hx and Emv-1 or D4S43h. Cloning of the region between these markers could generate new probes for conserved human sequences in the vicinity of the HD gene or possibly candidates for the murine counterpart of this human disease locus.

Confirmational, provisional, and/or regional assignment of 15 enzyme loci onto Chinese hamster autosomes 1, 2, and 7

PEG-mediated fusion between mouse Cl1d cells and primary Chinese hamster spleen cells produced interspecific hybrids which slowly and nonrandomly segregated Chinese hamster chromosomes. Cytogenetic and isozyme analysis (31 loci) of HAT and BrdU selected hybrid clones and subclones and of members of a hybrid clone panel retaining different combinations of Chinese hamster chromosomes enabled provisional assignment of the following enzyme loci on Chinese hamster chromosomes: thymidine kinase, galactokinase, and acid phosphatase-1 to chromosome 7; galactose-1-phosphate uridyltransferase to chromosome 2; and adenosine kinase, esterase D, glutathione reductase, glyoxalase, nucleoside phosphorylase, peptidases B and S, and phosphoglucomutase (PGM) 2 to chromosome 1. Assignments of PGM1, 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, and enolase 1 to chromosome 2 were confirmed, and a chromosome 2 deletion (q23-q33) enabled the provisional assignment of PGM1 to that region. The assignments provide markers for the study of the genetic consequences of chromosomal rearrangements in Chinese hamster cell lines and support the concept of conservation of mammalian autosomal linkage groups.

Human beta-glucuronidase: assignment of the structural gene to chromosome 7 using somatic cell hybrids

beta-Glucuronidase (GUS) has become an important enzyme model for the genetic study of molecular disease, enzyme realization, and therapy, and for the biogenesis and function of the lysosome and lysosomal enzymes. The genetics of human beta-glucuronidase was investigated utilizing 188 primary man-mouse and man-chinese hamster somatic cell hybrids segregating human chromosomes. Cell hybrids were derived from 16 different fusion experiments involving cells from ten different and unrelated individuals and six different rodent cell lines. The genetic relationship of GUS to 28 enzyme markers representing 19 linkage groups was determined, and chromosome studies on selected cell hybrids were performed. The evidence indicates that the beta-glucuronidase gene is assigned to chromosome 7 in man. Comparative linkage data in man and mouse indicate that the structural gene GUS is located in a region on chromosome 7 that has remained conserved during evolution. Involvement of other chromosomes whose genes may be important in the final expression of GUS was not observed. A tetrameric structure of human beta-glucuronidase was demonstrated by the formation of three heteropolymers migrating between the human and mouse molecular forms in chromosome 7 positive cell hybrids. Linkage of GUS to other lysosomal enzyme genes was investigated. beta-Hexosaminidase (HEXB) was assigned to chromosome 5; acid phosphatase2 (ACP2) and esterase A4 (ES-A4) were assigned to chromosome 11; HEXA was not linked to GUS; and alpha-galactosidase (alpha-GAL) was localized on the X chromosome. These assignments are consistent with previous reports. Evidence was not obtained for a cluster of lysosomal enzyme structural genes. In demonstrating that GUS was not assigned to chromosome 9 utilizing an X/9 translocation segregating in cell hybrids, the gene coding for human adenylate kinase1 was confirmed to be located on chromosome 9.

Genetics of peroxisomal enzymes in the mouse: nonlinkage of D-amino acid oxidase locus (Dao) to catalase (Cs) and L-alpha-hydroxyacid oxidase (Hao-1) loci on chromosome 2

An electrophoretic polymorphism of the peroxisomal enzyme D-amino acid oxidase was observed in NZC strain Mus musculus. F1 (NZC X BALB/c) mice showed a codominant allcle two-banded phenotype which is inconsistent with the dimeric subunit structure reported for this enzyme in other species. The enzyme locus (Dao) was shown to segregate independently of Hao-1, encoding the peroxisomal enzyme hydroxyacid oxidase (liver on A4 isozyme). Thus Dao is not linked to previously mapped peroxisomal enzyme loci, Hao-1 and Cs, closely localized on chromosome 2.

Comparative mapping using somatic cell hybrids

Comparative mapping, or ascertaining the gene linkage relationships between different species, is rapidly developing. This is possible because new techniques in chromosome identification and somatic cell hybridization, such as the generation of hybrids preferentially segregating chromosomes of any desired species including rodents, and the development of gene transfer techniques have yielded new information about the human and rodent gene maps. In addition, the discovery and characterization of mouse subspecies has generated new mouse sexual genetic linkage data. The following picture is emerging. Several X-linked genes in man are X-linked in all mammalian species tested. The linkage relationships of several tightly linked genes, less than 1 map unit apart, are also conserved in all mammalian species tested. Ape autosomal genes are assigned to ape chromosomes homologous to their human counterparts indicating extensive conservation in the 12 million years (MYR) of evolution from apes to man. Similarly, mouse and rat, 10 MYR apart in evolution, have several large autosomal synteny groups conserved. In comparing the mouse and human gene maps we find that human genes assigned to different arms of the same human chromosome are unlinked in the mouse; mouse genes large map distances (20 to 45 cM) apart are very likely to be unlinked in the human. However, several autosomal synteny groups 10 to 20 cM apart, including the Pgd, Eno-1, Pgm-1 group on human chromosome arm 1p, are conserved in mice and man. This suggests that homology mapping, the superimposition of one species gene map on the homologous conserved portion of another species genome may be possible, and that ancestral autosomal synteny groups should be detectable.

Assignment of a structural gene for beta-glucuronidase to human chromosome C7

An electrophoretic technique was developed which allows the separation of human beta-glucuronidase (GUS EC 3.2.1.3.1) from the enzyme present in cultured murine. Chinese and Syrian hamster cells in one buffer system on Cellogel. Using this technique a number of independent human-mouse somatic cell hybrids have been analyzed for the segregation of GUS, other enzyme markers, and all human chromosomes. The results indicate that a structural gene for human beta-glucuronidase is located on chromosome C7.