In humans, five class-mu glutathione transferase genes, GSTM1-5, are found
clustered at chromosome 1p13.3. We have characterized the GSTM cluster in m
acaques and partially characterized the cluster in mice. In macaques, the f
ive GST Mu genes are closely related to their human orthologs but differ in
the regions flanking the M1 deletion. Gene conversion of the intergenic re
gions appears to have occurred after hominoids and old-world monkeys diverg
ed 25 million years ago. Mice also have a similar tail-to-tail organization
of in the mu-cluster, but the genes flanking the human GSTM3 (mouse mGSTM5
) encode a novel cDNA, mGSTM7, and a possible pseudogene. (C) 2001 Elsevier
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