RT Journal
A1 Woods, Ian G.
A1 Wilson, Catherine
A1 Friedlander, Brian
A1 Chang, Patricia
A1 Reyes, Daengnoy K.
A1 Nix, Rebecca
A1 Kelly, Peter D.
A1 Chu, Felicia
A1 Postlethwait, John H.
A1 Talbot, William S.
T1 The zebrafish gene map defines ancestral vertebrate chromosomes
JF Genome Research 
JO Genome Research 
YR 2005 
FD September 01 
VO 15 
IS 9 
SP 1307 
OP 1314 
DO 10.1101/gr.4134305 
UL http://genome.cshlp.org/content/15/9/1307.abstract 
AB Genetic screens in zebrafish (Danio rerio) have identified mutations that define the roles of hundreds of essential vertebrate genes. Genetic maps can link mutant phenotype with gene sequence by providing candidate genes for mutations and polymorphic genetic markers useful in positional cloning projects. Here we report a zebrafish genetic map comprising 4073 polymorphic markers, with more than twice the number of coding sequences localized in previously reported zebrafish genetic maps. We use this map in comparative studies to identify numerous regions of synteny conserved among the genomes of zebrafish, Tetraodon, and human. In addition, we use our map to analyze gene duplication in the zebrafish and Tetraodon genomes. Current evidence suggests that a whole-genome duplication occurred in the teleost lineage after it split from the tetrapod lineage, and that only a subset of the duplicates have been retained in modern teleost genomes. It has been proposed that differential retention of duplicate genes may have facilitated the isolation of nascent species formed during the vast radiation of teleosts. We find that different duplicated genes have been retained in zebrafish and Tetraodon, although similar numbers of duplicates remain in both genomes. Finally, we use comparative mapping data to address the proposal that the common ancestor of vertebrates had a genome consisting of 12 chromosomes. In a three-way comparison between the genomes of zebrafish, Tetraodon, and human, our analysis delineates the gene content for 11 of these 12 proposed ancestral chromosomes.