Figure 1

A feature map of Ovine MHC sequence. The map spans 2,434,000 nucleotide bases in length, containing 177 protein-coding genes/ORFs and 18 miRNA coding genes. Each locus is represented by an arrow or arrow head, and annotated according to type, orientation, and location within the MHC. The tiling path of the sequenced BACs and the MHC structure are shown on the top. Micro RNA (18 shown): Identified gene that has high sequence homology with conserved gene encoding the functional mircoRNA in other species, noted following the given name of that species. Predicted (36 shown): Gene that either has high sequence similarity to that of the predicted gene in other species, or has a predicted ORF but no high sequence homologies with ESTs of Ovine or other species. Novel (10 shown): Ovine-specific gene identified with a defined open reading frame (ORF) that has not been found in any other species to date. The novel genes are annotated with OaN1 to OaN8 (Oa for Ovis aries; N for novel; another two with no cloning data, no annotation), from left to the right of the map. Known (131 in total): The functional genes previously annotated in Bovine, Ovine or other species.