Syntenic localization of bovine genes for class I alpha interferons, beta interferons, fibronectin, and growth hormone

Abstract

The bovine genes for class I alpha interferons, beta interferons, fibronectin, and growth hormone have been localized to syntenic groups. Using bovine-hamster and bovine-mouse hybrid somatic cells containing less than the normal complement of bovine chromosomes, genomic Southern blots were hybridized with cDNA probes and analyzed for the presence of bovine specific fragments. Correlation of these results with isoenzyme data established concordancy of segregation between the genes of interest and bovine isoenzymes previously assigned to syntenic groups. Alpha and beta interferon genes are linked to each other and to the aconitase 1 gene on syntenic group U18, and the fibronectin gene is linked to the isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 gene on syntenic group U17. The bovine growth hormone gene is not linked to any of the mapped isoenzyme loci or to the interferon or fibronectin, representing a cow chromosome not previously identified with marker gene loci. A small but heterogeneous group of cattle was analyzed for restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP) with the same probes used on the hybrid somatic cells. Southern blots were prepared from genomic DNA, digested with various restriction endonucleases and hybridized with each of the several probes. Eco RI, Hind III and Msp I polymorphisms were detected with both the alpha and beta interferons. Hind III, Msp I, and Taq I polymorphisms were observed with fibronectin. Two Eco RI polymorphisms were observed with growth hormone, extending the allelic variation previously described for this gene in cattle.