Molecular cloning and chromosomal localization of a gene coding for human cardiac myosin heavy-chain.

A human cardiac myosin heavy-chain (MHC) gene, cloned in a charon 4A phage, was isolated using two rat cardiac pCMHC DNA clones (pCMHC26: alpha-MHC type; and pCMHC5: beta-MHC type) as probes and shown to correspond to cardiac myosin heavy-chain of the alpha-type. The 4.3-KB cardiac genomic DNA clone was used as a probe in the Southern analysis of human genomic DNA from human-Chinese hamster or human-mouse somatic cell hybrids. The results show that the human cardiac MHC gene is assigned to chromosome 14 and the human cardiac and skeletal MHC genes do not cosegregate as do the mouse cardiac and skeletal MHC genes.