ISOLATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A 1 MB REGION OF 5Q23.3-Q31.2 SURROUNDING THE HUMAN LYSYL OXIDASE GENE

Lysyl oxidase (EC 1.4.3.13) plays a pivotal role in the maintenance of tissue integrity in both the normal and pathological states. It is a member of a newly discovered gene family that exhibits a complex mode of regulation, To date the resources necessary to begin to address its regulation have not been assembled. In part, this reflects the instab ility of this region of the genome when cloned into cosmid vectors. Th e paucity of long range restriction endonuclease sites suitable for ma pping this region of the genome has further hampered progress. To begi n to address this issue 2 YAC clones of 920 kb and 245 kb that contain the human lysyl oxidase gene were isolated. Long range physical mappi ng revealed that the 245 kb clone was centrally located within the 920 kb clone, The corresponding map of this region is congruent with that observed in the human genome. Thus, these YACs faithfully represent t his region of the human genome. The results of our cloning and mapping studies described in this communication should accelerate the advance of our understanding of this new connective tissue gene family. (C) 1 995 Academic Press Limited