Evidence of a large-scale functional organization of mammalian chromosomes

Abstract

Evidence from inbred strains of mice indicates that a quarter or more of the mammalian genome consists of chromosome regiosis containing clusters of functionary related genes, The intense selection pressures during inbreeding favor the eoinheritanee of optima! sets of alleles among these gertetically firsked, fyrsctiorsally related genes, resulting in extensive domains of Sinkage clisequllibrium (LD) among a set of 60 gerseticaHy diverse irsbred strains, Recombination that disrupts the preferred combinations of alleies reduces the ability of offspring to survive further inbreeding, LD is also seers between markers on separate chromosomes, forming networks with scaie-free architecture, Combining LD data wsth pathway and genome annotation databases, we have been able to identify the biological functions isrsderiyirsg several domains and networks, Given the strong conservation of gene order among mammals, the domains asid networks we firsd in mice probafoiy characterize all mammals, including humans. Copyright: © 2005 Petkov et al.