Abstract
Radiation hybrid (RH) mapping has become one of the most well-established techniques for economically and efficiently navigating genomes of interest. The success of the technique relies on random chromosome breakage of a target genome, which is then captured by recipient cells missing a preselected marker. Selection for hybrid cells that have DNA fragments bearing the marker of choice, plus a random set of DNA fragments from the initial irradiation, generates a set of cell lines that recapitulates the genome of the target organism several-fold. Markers or genes of interest are analyzed by PCR using DNA isolated from each cell line. Statistical tools are applied to determine both the linear order of markers on each chromosome, and the confidence of each placement. The resolution of the resulting map relies on many factors, most notably the degree of breakage from the initial radiation as well as the number of hybrid clones and mean retention value.A high-resolution RH map of a genome derived from low pass or survey sequencing (coverage from 1 to 2 times) can provide essentially the same comparative data on gene order that is derived from high-coverage (greater than x7) genome sequencing. When combined with fluorescence in situ hybridization, RH maps are complete and ordered blueprints for each chromosome. They give information about the relative order and spacing of genes and markers, and allow investigators to move between target and reference genomes, such as those of mouse or human, with ease although the approach is not limited to mammal genomes.