A COMPREHENSIVE GENETIC-MAP OF THE HUMAN GENOME BASED ON 5,264 MICROSATELLITES

The great increase in successful linkage studies in a number of higher eukaryotes during recent years has essentially resulted from major im provements in reference genetic linkage maps(1-6), which at present co nsist of short tandem repeat polymorphisms of simple sequences or micr osatellites(7,8). We report here the last version of the Genethon huma n linkage map(6). This map consists of 5,264 short tandem (AC/TG)(n) r epeat polymorphisms with a mean heterozygosity of 70%. The map spans a sex-averaged genetic distance of 3,699 cM and comprises 2,335 positio ns, of which 2,032 could be ordered with an odds ratio of at least 1,0 00:1 against alternative orders. The average interval size is 1.6 cM; 59% of the map is covered by intervals of 2 cM at most and 1% remains in intervals above 10 cM.