MAPPING OF THE SYNDECAN GENES IN THE MOUSE - LINKAGE WITH MEMBERS OF THE MYC GENE FAMILY

The syndecans are a family of four cell surface heparan sulfate proteo glycans in vertebrates that mediate a variety of cell behaviors, inclu ding cell adhesion and the action of growth factors. Their core protei ns contain conserved transmembrane and cytoplasmic domains but diverge nt extracellular regions in which only the glycosaminoglycan attachmen t sites are conserved. By extensive PCR analyses based on the conserve d sequences, we find only four syndecan-related sequences in the mouse . These correspond to the previously described core proteins of syndec an proteoglycans from other vertebrates. We have mapped the genes for syndecan-2 to chromosome 15, syndecan-3 to chromosome 4, and syndecan- 4 to chromosome 2 in the mouse. Together with the previous localizatio n of the gene for syndecan-1 to chromosome 12, these data establish th at the four syndecan genes are dispersed on different chromosomes and that each syndecan gene is located near a member of the nye gene famil y. Synd1 is next to Nmyc, Synd2 close to myc, Synd3 near Lmyc, and Syn d4 on the same chromosome as Bmyc. The physical relationship between t he members of these two gene families appears to be ancient and conser ved after the two genome duplications thought to have occurred during vertebrate evolution. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.