DNA sequence and analysis of human chromosome 9

S. J. Humphray, K. Oliver, A. R. Hunt, R. W. Plumb, J. E. Loveland, K. L. Howe, T. D. Andrews, S. Searle, S. E. Hunt, C. E. Scott, M. C. Jones, R. Ainscough, J. P. Almeida, K. D. Ambrose, R. I. S. Ashwell, A. K. Babbage, S. Babbage, C. L. Bagguley, J. Bailey, R. Banerjee, D. J. Barker, K. F. Barlow, K. Bates, H. Beasley, O. Beasley, C. P. Bird, S. Bray-Allen, A. J. Brown, J. Y. Brown, D. Burford, W. Burrill, J. Burton, C. Carder, N. P. Carter, J. C. Chapman, Y. Chen, G. Clarke, S. Y. Clark, C. M. Clee, S. Clegg, R. E. Collier, N. Corby, M. Crosier, A. T. Cummings, J. Davies, P. Dhami, M. Dunn, I. Dutta, L. W. Dyer, M. E. Earthrowl, L. Faulkner, C. J. Fleming, A. Frankish, J. A. Frankland, L. French, D. G. Fricker, P. Garner, J. Garnett, J. Ghori, J. G. R. Gilbert, C. Glison, D. V. Grafham, S. Gribble, C. Griffiths, S. Griffiths-Jones, R. Grocock, J. Guy, R. E. Hall, S. Hammond, J. L. Harley, E. S. I. Harrison, E. A. Hart, P. D. Heath, C. D. Henderson, B. L. Hopkins, P. J. Howard, P. J. Howden, E. Huckle, C. Johnson, D. Johnson, A. A. Joy, M. Kay, S. Keenan, J. K. Kershaw, A. M. Kimberley, A. King, A. Knights, G. K. Laird, C. Langford, S. Lawlor, D. A. Leongamornlert, M. Leversha, C. Lloyd, D. M. Lloyd, J. Lovell, S. Martin, M. Mashreghi-Mohammadi, L. Matthews, S. McLaren, K. E. McLay, A. McMurray, S. Milne, T. Nickerson, J. Nisbett, G. Nordsiek, A. V. Pearce, A. I. Peck, K. M. Porter, R. Pandian, S. Pelan, B. Phillimore, S. Povey, Y. Ramsey, V. Rand, M. Scharfe, H. K. Sehra, R. Shownkeen, S. K. Sims, C. D. Skuce, M. Smith, C. A. Steward, D. Swarbreck, N. Sycamore, J. Tester, A. Thorpe, A. Tracey, A. Tromans, D. W. Thomas, M. Wall, J. M. Wallis, A. P. West, S. L. Whitehead, D. L. Willey, S. A. Williams, L. Wilming, P. W. Wray, L. Young, J. L. Ashurst, A. Coulson, H. Blöcker, R. Durbin, J. E. Sulston, T. Hubbard, M. J. Jackson, D. R. Bentley, S. Beck, J. Rogers, I. Dunham

Chromosome 9 is highly structurally polymorphic. It contains the largest autosomal block of heterochromatin, which is heteromorphic in 6-8% of humans, whereas pericentric inversions occur in more than 1% of the population. The finished euchromatic sequence of chromosome 9 comprises 109,044,351 base pairs and represents >99.6% of the region. Analysis of the sequence reveals many intra- and interchromosomal duplications, including segmental duplications adjacent to both the centromere and the large heterochromatic block. We have annotated 1,149 genes, including genes implicated in male-to-female sex reversal, cancer and neurodegenerative disease, and 426 pseudogenes. The chromosome contains the largest interferon gene cluster in the human genome. There is also a region of exceptionally high gene and G + C content including genes paralogous to those in the major histocompatibility complex. We have also detected recently duplicated genes that exhibit different rates of sequence divergence, presumably reflecting natural selection.