Refined genome-wide comparative map of the domestic horse, donkey and human based on cross-species chromosome painting: insight into the occasional fertility of mules.
We have made a complete set of painting probes for the domestic horse by degenerate oligonucleotide-primed PCR amplification of flow-sorted horse chromosomes. The horse probes, together with a full set of those available for human, were hybridized onto metaphase chromosomes of human, horse and mule. Based on the hybridization results, we have generated genome-wide comparative chromosome maps involving the domestic horse, donkey and human. These maps define the overall distribution and boundaries of evolutionarily conserved chromosomal segments in the three genomes. Our results shed further light on the karyotypic relationships among these species and, in particular, the chromosomal rearrangements that underlie hybrid sterility and the occasional fertility of mules.
Centre for Veterinary Science, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0ES, UK. fy@mole.bio.cam.ac.uk
Fengtang
F
Yang
Beiyuan
B
Fu
Patricia C M
PC
O'Brien
Wenhui
W
Nie
Oliver A
OA
Ryder
Malcolm A
MA
Ferguson-Smith
D000818:Animals; D002874:Chromosome Mapping / Q000379:methods; D020223:Chromosome Painting / Q000379:methods*; D002875:Chromosomes; D002877:Chromosomes, Human; D018397:Equidae / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005298:Fertility / Q000235:genetics; D016678:Genome; D015894:Genome, Human; D006736:Horses / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007621:Karyotyping; D008677:Metaphase; D017385:Sequence Homology