This research will yield important information concerning the physical map of human chromosome 9. It will allow evaluation of the randomness of retroviral integrations into this chromosome. The cell lines produced by the research will be extremely useful in mapping the human genome. The determination of a physical map requires the ability to isolate regions of analyzable size and currently available hybrids are not adequate for this type of analysis. The incorporation of a selectable marker into the human chromosome means that the radiation hybrids containing fragments of this chromosome should be "cleaner" than those hybrids created without being able to select for the fragment of interest. One of the goals of this research is to see whether these hybrids are really superior and to evaluate the efficacy of using retroviral vectors to multiply mark a chromosome. Hybrids which have been fully characterized will yield important information on biological organization, structure and control of this portion of the genome. Comparisons with homologous regions in other species will yield important information on evolution in eukaryotic organisms. The approach adopted for chromosome 9 can be applied to any other human chromosome, or chromosomes of any other species so that the ROW Research Planning grant has considerable generality.
