Abstract
Comparative mapping, which compares the location of homologous genes in different species, is a powerful tool for studying genome evolution1. Comparative maps suggest that rates of chromosomal change in mammals can vary from one to ten rearrangements per million years1,2,3,4. On the basis of these rates we would expect 84 to 600 conserved segments in a chicken comparison with human or mouse. Here we build comparative maps between these species and estimate that numbers of conserved segments are in the lower part of this range. We conclude that the organization of the human genome is closer to that of the chicken than the mouse and by adding comparative mapping results from a range of vertebrates, we identify three possible phases of chromosome evolution. The relative stability of genomes such as those of the chicken and human will enable the reconstruction of maps of ancestral vertebrates.
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Acknowledgements
We thank members of the EC ChickMAP project and H. Cheng for providing data prior to publication, and J. Burt for helpful comments. Genome research at the Roslin Institute is supported by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Commission of the European Communities.
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Burt, D., Bruley, C., Dunn, I. et al. The dynamics of chromosome evolution in birds and mammals. Nature 402, 411–413 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/46555
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/46555
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