Linkage, physical mapping, and DNA sequence analysis of pseudoautosomal loci on the human X and Y chromosomes

The pseudoautosomal region of the human X and Y chromosomes is subject to frequent X-Y recombination during male meiosis. We report the finding of two pseudoautosomal loci, DXYS20 and DXYS28, characterized by highly informative restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs). The pseudoautosomal character of DXYS20 and DXYS28 was formally demonstrated by comparing their transmission to 45,X and to normal individuals. Studies of the inheritance of these loci reveal that the pseudoautosomal region, though highly recombinogenic, is subject to marked recombinational interference in male meiosis; no double recombinants were observed in 143 triply informative meioses, and the coefficient of coincidence is likely less than 0.45. In female meiosis, linkage of these pseudoautosomal RFLPs to strictly sex-linked RFLPs on the short arm of the X is readily detected; the genetic length of the pseudoautosomal region in female meiosis is at least 4 cM but not more than 18 cM. The genetic map of the human X chromosome is now defined from near the short-arm telomere to band q28 on the long arm. Locus DXYS20, which maps near the X and Y short-arm telomeres, is composed of long tandem arrays of 61-bp repeats. Occasional, seemingly random base-pair substitutions within these arrays of 61-bp repeats, in combination with marked variation in the size of the array, generate the high degree of DNA polymorphism at DXYS20.