Regional assignment of genes for human α-globin and phosphoglycollate phosphatase to the short arm of chromosome 16

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The human alpha-globin and phosphoglycollate phosphatase (EC 3.1.3.18) genes have been regionally localized to the short arm of human chromosome 16 (HC16). This was accomplished by fusing mouse fibroblasts (A9) to human fibroblasts that contain a reciprocal translocation between the long arms of chromosomes 16 and 11. The murine A9 cells are deficient in adenine phosphoribosyltransferase (APRT), an enzyme present on the long arm of HC16 (HC16q). Hybrid cells were grown in selection culture medium that required the cells to retain human APRT. Therefore, the hybrids exhibited stable retention of the entire HC16 or the rearranged chromosome containing HC16q. We isolated five independent primary and secondary hybrid cell lines which retained either HC16 or HC16q at a high frequency. The presence of human alpha-globin genes in the various clones was established directly by DNA extraction and hybridization to a cDNA probe for human alpha-globin genes. Autoradiographs showed that hybrid cells containing the long arm, but not the short arm, of HC16 showed only the background mouse bands. Hybrid cells that retained the entire HC16 demonstrated the band(s) containing the human alpha-globin genes. Hybrid cells that contained HC16 with its alpha-globin genes were then placed in culture medium that contained diaminopurine, which is lethal for cells containing APRT. These counter-selected hybrid cells had lost HC16 and also lost the human alpha-globin genes as determined by blot hybridization. The presence of alpha-globin gene sequences in the hybrid clones was concordant with HC16 only and not with any other human chromosome. These results confirm the assignment of alpha-globin genes to HC16 and localize the genes to the short arm. We also assign the locus for phosphoglycollate to the short arm of HC16.