We have constructed a high-resolution physical map of the long arm of
human chromosome 13 using a panel of 94 radiation hybrids. A comprehen
sive map of 95 chromosome 13-specific sequence tagged sites (STSs) spa
nning 13q from the presumed centromere at D13Z1 to the known telomere
was obtained by multipoint maximum likelihood statistical methods. The
95 markers have an average retention frequency of 10%, with markers c
loser to the centromere having much greater retention frequencies (22-
49%) than distal 13q markers (2-12%). The most likely radiation hybrid
map localized the 95 STSs into 54 unique map positions, 34 with odds
of 1000:1 or greater; the comprehensive map localized all but 17 STSs
with odds exceeding 10:1. The total map length of 13q was 1302 cR(9000
) (range 6.4-94.4 cR(9000)) and a physical distance of 98 Mb, so that
1% breakage in the RH panel corresponds to 75 kb. A comparison of the
comprehensive RH map to genetic maps of chromosome 139 shows identical
locus orders for the common markers, with two exceptions over 1-cM di
stances. We discuss the possible relationships between the genetic and
the radiation hybrid maps. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.