A consensus linkage map has been developed that combines all the genotyping data from the three available chicken mapping populations (East Lansing, Compton and Wageningen). The resulting linkage map of the chicken genome contains 1,889 loci. A framework map contains 480 loci ordered on 50 linkage groups. The possible positions of the remaining 1,409 loci are indicated relative to these framework loci. The total map spans 3,800 cM and contains 350 markers within expressed sequences of which 201 are identified genes or have significant sequence identity to known genes. This improves the contribution of the chicken linkage map to comparative gene mapping considerably and clearly shows the conservation of large syntenic regions between the human and chicken genomes.

Legend:

Framework loci (loci whose order relative to one another is supported by odds>3) have been ordered and their position is indicated by the number at left. The possible location of the loci whose order is not supported by odds>3 is indicated by an error bar. Loci that have been mapped cytogenetically are underlined; those known to represent expressed sequences (identified genes and ESTs) are in boldface type. The colored squares, triangles and circles provide comparative mapping information with regard to human.