Regional chromosomal assignments for four members of the mads domain transcription enhancer factor 2 (MEF2) gene family to human chromosomes 15q26, 19p12, 5q14, and 1q12-q23

TheMEF2genes belong to the MADS box family of transcription factors and encode proteins that bind as homo- and heterodimers to a consensus CTA(T/A)₄TAG/A sequence, which is present in the regulatory regions of numerous muscle-specific and growth-inducible genes. Sequence analysis of humanMEF2cDNA clones suggests that they arose from alternatively spliced transcripts of four different genes, termedMEF2A-D.We have mapped theMEF2genes to human chromosomal regions by identifying unique sequences in theMEF2cDNA clones and using these sequences as PCR primers on the DNA of human-rodent hybrid clone panels that are informative for different regions of the human genome. PCR primers were also used to identify individual YAC clones for two of the genes, MEF2AandMEF2C, and a PCR product was used to identify cosmid clones forMEF2B.Genetic and physical mapping information available from genome databases on markers contained within YAC and cosmid clones provided independent assignments for those genes. Inter-AluPCR painting probes of YAC clones were used as probes for high-resolution chromosomal regional assignment by fluorescencein situhybridization. The localization ofMEF2Ato chromosome 15q26, MEF2Bto 19p12, MEF2Cto 5q14, andMEF2Dto 1q12-q23 verifies the existence of at least four distinct loci for members of this gene family.