INTRON EXON STRUCTURE CONFIRMS THAT MOUSE ZFY1 AND ZFY2 ARE MEMBERS OF THE ZFY GENE FAMILY/

Zfy1 and Zfy2 are homologous zinc finger genes on the mouse Y Chromoso me. To ask whether these genes are properly classified as members of t he ZFY family, we have characterized and compared their genomic organi zation to that of mouse Zfx, human ZFX; and human ZFY. We show that Zf y1 has 11 exons distributed across at least 56 kb, and Zfy2 has a mini mum of 9 exons distributed across at least 52 kb. The Zfy2 locus conta ins regions similar in size and sequence to all 11 exons of Zfy1, plus an additional 5' UTR exon. All splice sites conform to the GT-AG rule . There are two instances of additional AG dinucleotides immediately 5 ' of 3' splice sites. Zfy1 and Zfy2 are homologous to other ZFY family members within the coding region, but the untranslated regions show n o sequence similarity. Within the coding region, there is conservation of exon length and splice sites, with each splice preceding the secon d nucleotide of a codon. We conclude that Zfy1 and Zfy2 are indeed mem bers of the ZFY family, which has evolved from a single common ancestr al gene. (C) 1997 Academic Press.