RT Journal
A1 Younger, Ruth M.
A1 Amadou, Claire
A1 Bethel, Graeme
A1 Ehlers, Anke
A1 Lindahl, Kirsten Fischer
A1 Forbes, Simon
A1 Horton, Roger
A1 Milne, Sarah
A1 Mungall, Andrew J.
A1 Trowsdale, John
A1 Volz, Armin
A1 Ziegler, Andreas
A1 Beck, Stephan
T1 Characterization of Clustered MHC-Linked Olfactory Receptor Genes in Human and Mouse
JF Genome Research 
JO Genome Research 
YR 2001 
FD April 01 
VO 11 
IS 4 
SP 519 
OP 530 
DO 10.1101/gr.160301 
UL http://genome.cshlp.org/content/11/4/519.abstract 
AB Olfactory receptor (OR) loci frequently cluster and are present on most human chromosomes. They are members of the seven transmembrane receptor (7-TM) superfamily and, as such, are part of one of the largest mammalian multigene families, with an estimated copy number of up to 1000 ORs per haploid genome. As their name implies, ORs are known to be involved in the perception of odors and possibly also in other, nonolfaction-related, functions. Here, we report the characterization of ORs that are part of the MHC-linked OR clusters in human and mouse (partial sequence only). These clusters are of particular interest because of their possible involvement in olfaction-driven mate selection. In total, we describe 50 novel OR loci (36 human, 14 murine), making the human MHC-linked cluster the largest sequenced OR cluster in any organism so far. Comparative and phylogenetic analyses confirm the cluster to be MHC-linked but divergent in both species and allow the identification of at least one ortholog that will be useful for future regulatory and functional studies. Quantitative feature analysis shows clear evidence of duplications of blocks of OR genes and reveals the entire cluster to have a genomic environment that is very different from its neighboring regions. Based on in silico transcript analysis, we also present evidence of extensive long-distance splicing in the 5′-untranslated regions and, for the first time, of alternative splicing within the single coding exon of ORs. Taken together with our previous finding that ORs are also polymorphic, the presented data indicate that the expression, function, and evolution of these interesting genes might be more complex than previously thought.[The sequence data described in this paper have been submitted to the EMBL nucleotide data library under accession nos.Z84475, Z98744, Z98745, AL021807, AL021808, AL022723, AL022727,AL031893, AL035402, AL035542, AL050328, AL050339, AL078630, AL096770,AL121944, AL133160, and AL133267.]