Bioautographic visualization of aminoacylase-1: assignment of the structural gene ACY-1 to chromosome 3 in man.

A bioautographic assay was developed for the visualization of aminoacylase-1 (N-acylamino acid aminohydrolase, ACY-1; EC 3.5.1.14) after zone electrophoresis. Bioautography and species differences in electrophoretic mobility of ACY-1 made it possible to investigate the chromosome assignment of the gene for human ACY-1 using human--mouse somatic cell hybrids. Human ACY-1 segregated concordantly with beta-galactosidase-A (beta GALA; EC 3.2.1.23) but showed discordant segregation with 32 other markers representing 23 linkage groups. The beta GALA gene has been previously assigned to chromosome 3. From this evidence and confirming chromosome analyses, ACY-1 has been assigned to chromosome 3. A genetic polymorphism in the electrophoretic mobility of ACY was observed in mouse strains, demonstrating that this enzyme can be mapped in genetic crosses of Mus musculus.