Human delta-aminolevulinate dehydratase: chromosomal localization to 9q34 by in situ hybridization

The structural gene for human delta-aminolevulinate dehydratase (ALA-D) has been localized to chromosomal region 9q34 by in situ hybridization using a [125I]-labeled human delta-aminolevulinate dehydratase cDNA. Of the 150 silver grains analyzed, 25% were localized to chromosome 9q, while 12% and 8% were on chromosomes 1p and 13q, respectively. The single chromosomal region q34 had over 90% of the total grains observed on chromosome 9. In contrast, the grains on chromosomes 1p and 13q were dispersed, consistent with the absence of any human ALA-D pseudogenes. Southern blot analysis of somatic cell hybrids informative for ALA-D (Wang et al. 1985) also was consistent and supported the finding of only one locus for this heme biosynthetic enzyme.