Genomic cloning of mouse MIF (macrophage inhibitory factor) and genetic mapping of the human and mouse expressed gene and nine mouse pseudogenes.

The single functional mouse gene for MIF (macrophage migration inhibitory factor) has been cloned from a P1 library, and its exon/intron structure determined and shown to resemble that of the human gene. The gene was mapped to chromosome 10 using two multilocus crosses between laboratory strains and either Mus musculus musculus or Mus spretus. Nine additional loci containing related sequences, apparently all processed pseudogenes, were also mapped to chromosomes 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 12, 17, and 19. While most of these pseudogenes were found in inbred mice and M. spretus, some are species specific. This suggests that there have been active phases of pseudogene formation in Mus both before and after the separation of musculus and spretus. The human genome contains no pseudogenes; we assigned the human gene to chromosome 19, consistent with the location of mouse and human functional genes for MIF in a region of conserved linkage.