Oncogenes and linkage groups: Conservation during mammalian chromosome evolution

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Abstract
Proto-oncogenes, which represent the cellular progenitors of the transforming genes harbored by acute transforming oncogenic retroviruses, have been highly conserved during vertebrate evolution. In this report, we have assigned experimentally a subset of proto-oncogenes (SRC, ABL, FES, and FMS — all related to the SRC family) to Chinese hamster chromosomes by Southern filter hybridization analyses of DNAs isolated from both somatic cell hybrids and flow-sorted hamster chromosomes. These results demonstrate that several autosomal linkage groups containing proto-oncogenes originated prior to the radiation and speciation of mammals and have remained remarkably stable for nearly 80 million years.