Assignment of 60 human ESTs in cattle

As part of the human genome study, large-scale cDNA sequencing has produced thousands of Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs). Généthon has mapped in human 10,000 of these ESTs and has shown that the primers of about 1000 ESTs could amplify bovine DNA. In this work, we have analyzed 233 primer pairs provided by Genethon, to assign type I sequences to the bovine genome by using a hamster-bovine somatic cell hybrid panel. Among these 233 primer pairs, 109 gave a specific PCR product with bovine genomic DNA, but for 50% the size of the PCR product was the same in cattle and hamster, requiring SSCP analysis. Finally, 60 ESTs were assigned to the bovine genome, and among them 46 were found on the bovine chromosome expected from heterologous painting data between cattle and human. Received: 16 December 1999 / Accepted: 6 May 2000