COMPARATIVE-ANALYSIS OF THE CATTLE AND HUMAN GENOMES - DETECTION OF ZOO-FISH AND GENE MAPPING-BASED CHROMOSOMAL HOMOLOGIES

Comparative chromosome painting with individual human chromosome-speci fic libraries (CSLs) on cattle metaphase chromosomes delineated 46 hom ologous chromosomal segments between the two species. Continuous arran gement of these segments on individual cattle chromosomes demonstrates a nearly complete coverage of the bovine karyotype and shows physical boundaries of bovine chromosomal segments homologous to individual hu man chromosomes. Alignment of the available comparative gene mapping d ata with the homologous segments strongly supports the detected gross homologies between the karyotypes of the two species. In addition to c attle, four human CSLs were hybridized to sheep metaphase chromosomes also, to further verify the known karyotype homology within the Bovida e. Besides its application to karyotype evolution research, the compar ative knowledge provides for rapid expansion of the much needed Type I locus-based bovine gene map.