LONG-RANGE RESTRICTION MAPPING OF MEGABASE-SIZED CHROMOSOMES THAT MAYBE HOMOLOGS IN TRYPANOSOMA-BRUCEI

Trypanosoma brucei is a blood-borne pathogen that changes its variant surface glycoprotein coat, thus evading immune destruction. Restrictio n digestion, combined with probe hybridization studies, was used to co nstruct long-range restriction maps of the 1.4 (M4) and 1.5 megabase ( M3) chromosomes from the IsTaR1 serodeme of T. b. brucei. Comparison o f the two chromosomes suggests that they are a homologous pair. Hybrid ization with a repetitive sequence probe also identifies several copie s on the M4 chromosome and a relative paucity of cross-hybridizing rep etitive sequence on the larger M3 chromosome.