Assignment of human ferritin genes to chromosomes 11 and 19q13.3----19qter.

Extracts of hamster-human and mouse-human hybrids, some with translocations involving chromosome 19, have been assayed for both human spleen ferritin (rich in L subunits) and human heart ferritin (rich in H subunits). Hybrid lines retaining part of the long arm of chromosome 19 including the region 19q13.3----19qter produced human "L" type ferritin. This confirms the previous assignment of the "ferritin gene" to chromosome 19 (Caskey et al. 1983). However, lines retaining chromosome 11 were found to contain human "H" type ferritin suggesting that the gene for the "H" subunit is on this chromosome. The presence of chromosome 6 was not necessary for the expression of either "H" or "L" type human ferritin. It thus seems unlikely that the gene for idiopathic haemochromatosis is a ferritin gene.