| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
WASHIO Keiko Res.Centr.for Adv.Sci.Tech.Univ.Tokyo Res-Assist, 助手 (60230942)
UEDA Shintaryoh Fac.Science, Univ.Tokyo Associate Prof., 理学部, 助教授 (20143357)
TANAKA Einosuke Inst.Comm.Med.Univ.of Tsukuba Lecuturer, 社会医学系, 講師 (30138416)
HARADA Shoji Inst.Comm.Med.Univ.of Tsukuba Associate Prof., 社会医学系, 助教授 (60086618)
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| Research Abstract |
1. Uniqueness is fundamental to the individuality of species, and this in turn is based on the uniqueness of their genomes. For the purpose of resolving the genitic basis of human uniqueness, we describe here the isolation of human-specific sequences using the technique of genome subtraction, i.e., competitive reassociation of genomic DNAs between two very closely related species. One such sequence, HS5, was found to be present only in the human genome and absent in the genomes of non-human primates including chimpanzees, the species most closely related to humans.
2. DNA templates from chimpanzees can be amplified using the primers developed from human sequences. Eight chimpanzees having unknown relatedness show polymorphic patterns. Each sample exhibits one or two intense major bands and few minor bands which are found at intervals of every 2 nucleotides. Among 7 alleles indentified, 5 alleles corresponded to human population alleles, i.e., Z+8, Z+4, Z+2, Z and Z-2. Allele Z, having the 137-bp major fragment, is the most common allele in both the Caucasian and Japanese human populations. Although the population size of chimpanzees examined was small, the number of detected alleles compared favorably with those found with human populations.
These results indicate that the dinucleotide repeat at the apolipoprotein AII locus is highly polymorphic in chimpanzees, and is an informative genetic marker just as in human populations.
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