Comparative mapping ofZFYin the hominoid apes

✍ Scribed by Gaby Müller; Werner Schempp

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 807 KB
• Volume: 88
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0340-6717
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00204930

✦ Synopsis

Within our project of comparative mapping of candidate genes for sex-determination/testis differentiation, we used a cloned probe from the human ZFY locus for comparative hybridization studies in hominoids. As in the human, the ZFY probe detects X- and Y-specific restriction fragments in the chimpanzee, the gorilla, the orangutan, and the gibbon. Furthermore, the X-specific hybridization site in the great apes resides in Xp21.3, the same locus defining ZFX in the human. The Y-specific locus of ZFY maps closely to the early replicating pseudoautosomal segment in the telomeric or subtelomeric position of the Y chromosomes of the great apes, again as found in the human. Thus, despite cytogenetically visible structural alterations within the euchromatic parts of the Y chromosomes of the human species and the great apes, a segment of the Y chromosome defined by the pseudoautosomal region and ZFY seems to be more strongly conserved than the rest of the Y chromosome.