Demonstration of the X-linkage and order to the genes GLA, G6PD, HPRT, and PGK in two vole species of the genus Microtus.

Using a variety of genetic methods, it is shown in this paper that the genes GLA, G6PD, HPRT, and PGK are X-linked in the vole Microtus subarvalis. The order of these genes has been investigated in two vole species, M. subarvalis and M. kirgisorum, by using the mapping technique of Goss and Harris (1977a, b), which depends on the analysis of gamma-ray-induced gene segregation. The experimental data were processed with the computer programme RHMAP (Ginsburg et al., 1993). The analysis indicated that the correct gene order in M. subarvalis is PGK-HPRT-G6PD-GLA, and the same gene order was found to be the most probable for M. kirgisorum. The relative distances between the genes in the two vole species are apparently the same. The RHMAP programme has also been applied to data previously reported for the same set of X-linked genes in the American mink (Zhdanova et al., 1988), the Australian marsupial Planigale maculata (Dobrovic and Graves, 1986), and man. The evolutionary conservation of the linear order of these X-linked genes in different mammalian taxa is discussed.