THE HUMAN EARLY-PREGNANCY FACTOR CHAPERONIN-10 GENE FAMILY

cDNA clones corresponding to the sequence for human early pregnancy fa ctor were isolated from a human melanoma library and hybridized to DNA digested with four restriction enzymes obtained from twelve different subjects. Up to 20 cross hybridizing bands were observed. When hybrid ized to metaphase spreads from four different humans, significant sign als were present in nine locations, on eight different chromosome arms . These results suggest that the early pregnancy factor gene is a memb er of a large gene family. The coding sequence for early pregnancy fac tor has a high degree of homology with the sequence for human chaperon in 10, and the gene family described here should contain the genes for both of these proteins. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.