Human chromosome 7 circa 2004: a model for structural and functional studies of the human genome

Human chromosome 7 is arguably amongst the most comprehensively characterized segments of the human genome. By microscopic examination, it belongs to the medium-sized group C submetacentric class, and historical studies involving chromosome-length measurements estimated that it accounts for approximately 5.3% of the human genome (or 160 Mb). Early successes in molecular genetics led to the identification of some of its biomedically important genes, including the T-cell receptor and homeobox families as well as the erythropoietin and cystic fibrosis genes. The Human Genome Project brought chromosome 7-specific and genome-wide initiatives, generating a wealth of genomic resources that have revealed the presence of over 350 disease-associated genes. Two distinct assemblies of the chromosome 7 sequence have been generated-one based largely on mapped large-insert clones and the other based on an integrated whole-genome shotgun sequencing strategy. These two sequences are mainly identical (<1% difference), and both estimate the unit length of chromosome 7 to be just over 158 Mb, remarkably similar to the originally predicted size. Systematic annotation efforts have anchored to the sequence, amongst many features, over 900 known genes and some 1000 other gene structures, as well as over 650 chromosomal breakpoints identified in patients with characterized phenotypic differences. Chromosome 7 has also been shown to contain the highest content of intra-autosomal segmental duplications in the human genome. The orthologous regions of roughly 22 Mb of chromosome 7 are currently being sequenced in multiple other vertebrate species. Examining these comparative sequence data, in conjunction with the other accumulating genomic information about these regions and the rest of the chromosome, should provide a model for the next generation of structural and functional analyses of the human genome.