title: Body maps on the human genome.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Chromosomes have territories, or preferred locales, in the cell nucleus. When these sites are taken into account, some large-scale structure of the human genome emerges.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The synoptic picture is that genes highly expressed in particular topologically compact tissues are not randomly distributed on the genome. Rather, such tissue-specific genes tend to map somatotopically onto the complete chromosome set. They seem to form a "genome homunculus": a multi-dimensional, genome-wide body representation extending across chromosome territories of the entire spermcell nucleus. The antero-posterior axis of the body significantly corresponds to the head-tail axis of the nucleus, and the dorso-ventral body axis to the central-peripheral nucleus axis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This large-scale genomic structure includes thousands of genes. One rationale for a homuncular genome structure would be to minimize connection costs in genetic networks. Somatotopic maps in cerebral cortex have been reported for over a century.
authors.affiliation: Committee for Philosophy and the Sciences, Department of Philosophy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA. cherniak@umd.edu.
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cherniak
authors.forename: Raul
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rodriguez-Esteban