Isochores and CpG islands in YAC contigs in human Xq26.1-qter

GC levels were assessed at 37 loci across 30 Mb of Xq26.1-qter, a region physically mapped in overlapping yeast artificial chromosome clones. In 8 Mb of R band Xq26, GC is relatively high (up to 44%) in the proximal 4 Mb and relatively low (40-41%) in the distal 4 Mb. Consistently low GC values (38-41%) are observed in G band Xq27. In contrast, further toward the telomere in Xq28, the GC level rises progressively to reach 52% at 2 to 4 Mb from the end of the chromosome; this region is delimited by low GC loci. Across these regions of Xq, the content of rare-cutter restriction enzyme sites containing CpG, including "CpG islands" in the most completely mapped Xq26-27.1 region, is correlated with GC level. Isochore mapping can thus provide one index of putative gene content across mapped regions.