Mammalian genome mapping: lessons and prospects.

The recent emphasis on human genome mapping has stimulated the development of gene maps in close to thirty mammalian species. Animal gene maps provide an invaluable resource for genetic analysis and manipulation of phenotypic characters, as well as a retrospective glimpse at the patterns and processes of genome evolution. An empirical strategy for developing new gene maps in mammals by emphasizing two important classes of index or anchor marker loci is presented.