The beta chorionic gonadotropin-beta luteinizing gene cluster maps to human chromosome 19.

We used a cloned human cDNA probe homologous to the placenta chorionic gonadotropin beta subunit (CGB) and to the pituitary luteinizing hormone beta subunit (LHB) and Southern blotting techniques to analyse DNA from a series of rodent X human somatic cell hybrids for the presence of specific gonadotropin beta subunit related sequences. Our results provide evidence for the assignment and linkage of the eight genes (or pseudogenes) coding for the beta subunit of these glycoprotein hormones to chromosome 19. Moreover, we observed a strict concordance between the permissivity of mouse X man hybrid cells to enteroviruses (which is linked to the presence of specific cell receptors encoded by human chromosome 19) and the presence of CGB and LHB related sequences, thus confirming the localization of the structural genes for the beta subunits on chromosome 19.