Long-range physical map of the Ly-6 complex: mapping the Ly-6 multigene family by field-inversion and two-dimensional gel electrophoresis.

The Ly-6 proteins are encoded by a recently identified multigene family. Much attention has been focused on these proteins because they may be involved in lymphocyte activation, and expression of some of them occurs at critical times in the differentiation of lymphocytes. These features make it important to investigate and to characterize further this family of molecules and the genes that encode them. To aid our investigation of these issues, we have constructed a physical map of the entire Ly-6 complex in the C57BL/6 murine genome using the combined techniques of field-inversion gel electrophoresis (FIGE), phage and cosmid genomic library screening, and two-dimensional DNA electrophoresis. This map spans approximately 1600 kb, and comparison of the FIGE map and cosmids indicates that most of the Ly-6 complex has been isolated in the cosmid clones.