The human genes for GM-CSF and IL 3 are closely linked in tandem on chromosome 5.

As demonstrated by long-range mapping of restriction endonuclease recognition sequences and genomic cloning, we found that the human genes encoding interleukin 3 (IL 3) and granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) are tandemly arrayed on the long arm of chromosome 5, separated by 9 kilobases (kb) of DNA. This close physical linkage of genes with similar structure and biologic function suggests that these cytokines may have evolved from a common ancestral gene. This linkage in evolution of two relatively divergent genes further implies that some of the other lymphokine and cytokine genes that appear to share as much or more sequence similarity than do IL 3 and GM-CSF may be distantly related members of a cytokine gene family.