The alpha-A-crystallin and cystathionine beta-synthase genes are physically very closely linked in proximal mouse chromosome 17

Murine genes homologous to those contributing to the Down syndrome (DS) phenotype in man are currently of interest because of their potential for providing animal models for the study of specific DS symptoms. Most of the genes mapping to human chromosome 21q22, where the DS genes are concentrated, are related to sequences located on mouse chromosome 16. Others, however, are known to map to mouse chromosome 10, and two genes, cystathionine beta-synthase (Cbs) and alpha-A-crystallin (Crya-1), have been localized to the proximal portion of mouse chromosome 17. In this paper, we show that the two genes mapping to human chromosome 21q22 and mouse chromosome 17 are very tightly linked in mouse, being separated by at least 70 kb, but not more than 130 kb. The very close physical linkage of mouse Cbs and Crya-1, combined with data that localize homologs of the closely flanking markers H2k and Pim-1 to human chromosome 6, suggests that the human 21q22/mouse chromosome 17 conserved segment is of a very limited total physical size and is likely to contain a relatively small number of genes.